Neutral Ground
by E-angel-H
Summary: A dragon's sister is introduced into life of the Xiaolin and Heylin sides. A person who stands neutral in their fight and makes friends on both sides. What happens when people want to use/hurt/kill her. Chase/OC Ray/Kim
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own ****Xiaolin Showdown**, it's the property of whoever owns it.

**Summery:****What happens when a dragon's sister is introduced into life of the Xiaolin and Heylin sides? A person who stands neutral in there fights for the Shen Gong Wu due to her own confusing situation. What happens is she makes friends on both sides. What happens when people want to use/hurt/kill her. New enemies, new friends, old enemies that become new friends. The story of what happens when one person decides to stand on Neutral ground.**

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Chapter 1

It was an ordinary day at the Xiaolin Temple. Well as normal as it can be with four dragon powered adolescents, a scroll guarding dragon that can change shape and an old Xiaolin master with a desk calendar of Chinese proverbs to spout out.

The last two were conferencing over the team's enemies, allies, the Shen Gong Wu they had and ones they didn't, what's the best kind of tea….

Clay was in the kitchen making himself some lunch while the over three monks were outside enjoying the sunshine. Kimiko was using her phone to catch up with her Japanese friends while her boyfriend of a month Raimundo hovered near by watching Omi. Omi was trying to figure out how a cell phone worked which Raimundo found slightly amusing but mostly annoying. Amusing seen as Omi didn't know the first thing about technology and thought machines ran of magic causing quite a few funny comments to be made by the bald eight year old.. Angry because the phone he was examining was his.

"Omi if you break that." He threatened as annoyance began to override hi system.

"Like 'I' would break it Raimundo my friend." Omi said back an ego filled grin on his face. "Are you forgetting who you're talking to? Just freeze in." He then turned back to the phone which hew was flipping open and closed, open, closed, open … Well you get the idea.

"Its chill out Omi and you will break it if you keep that up." Rai grounded out agitated while reaching to retrieve his phone. The agile water dragon managed to evade him proceeding to round of catch the annoying bald.

"Pack it in you two I can't hear Keiko" Kimiko shouted at the two boys as Clay came out with a sandwich which he began to eat while watching the unsurprising event. "Yeah the Brazilian kid chasing the bald kid to get his phone back. I better call you back later, bai." She hung up on her friend and began to watch as Omi climbed the wall to be out of Raimundo's grasp.

"Get down hear know Q-tip or god hep me I will…" Raimundo trailed off darkly letting Omi come up with his own threat. The small yellow boy ignored him though and proceeded to jump up and down cheering for his brilliance.

"I beat you. I beat you. Admit it Raimundo my friend, I am far superior then you. Hah, hah. Agghhh." The scream was from when Rai's phone went of shocking Omi who dropped the phone luckily into Raimundo's waiting hands. With half a smirk and half glare at Omi for nearly dropping breaking his pone, Raimundo looked at his caller ID.

A smile spread across his face which Kimiko recognised as the one he reserved for contact with his family.

"Olá mãe" He greeted in Portuguese. "Sou perfeito. Você?... Bom, bom."

The other three monks only heard a random English word in the conversation going on and though there was a lot of trying on Omi's side, could not figure out what the conversation was about. Omi eventually gave up realising it was going to be a conversation that consisted of only Portuguese and climbed down from the roof to look over Kimiko's shoulder, who was typing an e-mail to Keiko, while Clay fished his sandwich. This went on for ten minutes till….

"WHAT? YOURE KIDDING RIGHT? THAT'S GREAT!" Rai shouted in obvious glee before taking a sheepish look "Sorry Mãe. Did you ask Master Fung? Great. See you soon. Adeus." He hung up on the caller and began to run into the temple, his fellow monks following confused.

"Well I thought as you had little contact with your family it would be nice, and your mother raised a valid pint when she asked me about it." Mater Fung was smiling at the young gleeful boy standing in front of him. "In the end I really couldn't say no, especially as the Heylin sideand you have seemed to have reached an agreement about when and who to fight for the Shen Gong Wu."

"As mush as I hate to admit it, it was mostly Chase Young who was responsible for that." The leader of the Xiaolin monks admitted referring to the proposition made at a Xiaolin showdown a few months ago which had been near to a children's playground. Chases honour didn't like how innocent children were nearly hurt and proposed an agreement which consisted of the two teams only fighting during during Xiaolin showdowns which would be fought away from innocents.

Jack Spicer and Katnappé both agreed to the terms not liking the turn of events anymore then chase did, and surprisingly Wuya willingly agreed as well. Raimundo later put that down to her very well hidden maternal side. With their greatest warrior proposing it the rest of the Heylin side soon followed there comrades and when the Xiaolin monks agreed to the terms as well it was official. It actually had done wonders for the relationship between teams as when they met outside of the showdowns they had to be reasonably civil. Actually in some cases if it wasn't for the showdowns there could be some who would see possible friendships, such as between Kimiko and Ashley who had met numerous times in the mall and were able to blow off steam about being around boys all the time.

"I hate to interrupt yore conversation with Raimundo Master." Omi interrupted "But what are you talking about?"

"Ah Omi I think that is for the dragon of wind to explain." Mater Fung replied gesturing to Raimundo to continue.

"Guys, what do you think to some more female company?"

* * *

"Chase, Chase" A desperate, whiny, excited voice called through the halls of the Chase Young's lair followed by there hurried stumbling footsteps on the marble floor.

"WHAT?" The Immortal Prince of Darkness shouted from the library where he had been spending a successful few hours strategising his latest plan. His harsh yellow dragon eyes glared at the door which in a few moments opened to revel the one and only Jack Spicer, the biggest pain in the side Chase had ever had the chance to meet in over 1500 years.

The red haired boy genius ignored Chases glare and began to talk, no prattle in a gasping voice indicating he had run the whole way from god knows were.

"Well Raimundo told Kimiko, who told Ashley who for some reason told Wuya, who told Bean who was meant to tell you but couldn't be bothered, so told Le Mime…" He began to rattle of sounding alarmingly like a female high school gossiper. He rolled his eyes at the sorry excuse for a minion, glad that he had the more competent jungle cats at his disposal, and leaned back in his chair waiting for Jack to reach the point of his statement.

"Who told Megan for the fifth who told Ashley who decided to finally tell me, that the Xiaolin monks are going to Brazil." He started to breathe deeply having said it all in one big breath, looking expectedly at the imposing man in front of him.

"What has that got to do with me." Chase growled at the finally-realising-who-he-was-talking-too Jack Spicer.

"Well it could be for a Shen Gong Wu." He suggested nervously.

"Let me point some thing out" He sighed exasperated by the stupid underling. "Wuya would be aware if there was a new Shen Gong Wu."

"Well she must be broken then."

"Wuya is not broken Spicer." He groaned into his hand "May I also point out that the dragon of fire would not tell Katnappe that she was going to Brazil if it was to get a Shen Gong Wu. They are most likely going to see the dragon of winds family as he is Brazilian."

"Raimundo is from Brazil" Jack asked clueless

"Yes off course he is, He does have an accent you know." How stupid was this lackey.

"Yeah but I thought he was a poser." Ok maybe not that stupid. "So what are you going to do."

"About what."

"The monks going to Brazil."

"There is no point in us going to Brazil, there is no Shen Gong Wu there Spicer."

"Yeah, but the others don't know that." An addition purred and Katnappe walked in the room. "Wuya has left for a short vacation so now everyone thinks there is a Wu in Brazil. The thing is the dragons are going to pick up a member of the Brazilians family."

"Who?" Chase asked curious "And how did you get in here?"

"Jack left the door open." Ashley answered half mindedly ignoring Chases glare at the scared red head. "And I think Kim said it was his younger sister. Daisy, Lilly, some sort of flower anyway." She discarded the fact of the sister's name and continued. "She wanted me to make sure we weren't going to attack the temple anytime soon and that we would be careful when fighting that this girl isn't involved in any way." She shrugged and then began to scowl "Only Wuya forgot to mention the whole sister thing to Bean so it was left out as the message spread, and then Jack ran off here before I could give him the whole story." She looked up "We need to go round everyone up basically, most are already in Brazil."

Chase groaned putting a hand to his face knowing that, because of the agreement between the two teams, he had better go retrieve his wayward team members. He really wanted to neaten up his new plan as well.

"Looks like we're going to Brazil."

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**A/N: Well thats the first Chapter up for Neutral ground. Just to reassure you that youre not going mad, yes the strange words are in portuguese, though if the translator I used got it wrong I am verey sorry.**

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	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own ****Xiaolin Showdown**, it's the property of whoever owns it. 

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Chapter 2

"So were going to be meeting your family at the circus site." Kimiko asked from her perch behind Raimundo on Dojo Kanojo Cho. "And they want us to stay the weekend."

"Yeah, they want my sis to have one last performance this weekend and my mãe wants to meet my friends, especially my girlfriend." Kimiko gulped discreetly hoping Rai didn't notice but he easily did because of the proximity between the two. "Don't worry about in Kimi. My mother will love you, I'm sure of it. Anyway I have permission for us to leave if any Wu appear."

"What if there aren't any though?" Kimiko asked worriedly.

"They don't have to know that." Raimundo grinned cheekily at her resulting in her gently slapping him in the arm, shaking her head at his attitude. "Seriously though I may have to call that card myself to get away. That's if they try to get me into tights." Omi who had been listening in on the couple's conversation burst out lathing about Raimundo, tights and girls. After Kimiko had finished her rant at the sexist yellow boy she turned back to her boyfriend who looked both amused and embarrassed. "Why did I have to say that?" He muttered.

"Actually that was what I was going to ask" She teased "I was wondering why they would want you in tights." Raimundo began to blush deeply.

"Its just tights are safer for an acrobat to wear. It's not really embarrassing to be honest, but it is." Rai told her the confusing statement before hitting the laughing Q-Tip himself.

"That makes no sense partner, the last part that is." Clay told him.

"I don't understand it either." Kimiko assured her friend before addressing the circus boy "So you think they'll want you to take part in the show."

"Maybe, I'm not that sure." Raimundo admitted "Hey were here." Dojo had begun to land in an alleyway and they could see the clearing in the middle of the town that was filled with brightly coloured banners.

The clearing wasn't far, especially when you had a boy who had visited the city many times with the circus his family was part of. It was also early in the morning and there were a lack of pedestrians to slow them down.

The three new comers to Brazil looked round themselves in wonder. Only a few days ago there had been a small parade held by the circus for publicity which was like a proper Carnival celebration. As a result the streets still and leftover treasures of the colourful spectacle ranging from lost feathers from costumes or the glitter that had bee thrown. What caught his as well as his companion's attention most were the posters. Grand and colourful they depicted the show to the fullest with startling painting effects, and Rai could not help but smile at his cousin's work. The only downside was they had yet to see one of a certain acrobat, as certain girl that he wanted his companions to see.

"Is the circus really like that Raimundo?" Omi asked staring at one poster that showed one of the strong men holding two benches each with two girls on over his head while glitter cannons went of.

"No Omi." Raimundo replied wistfully "Its better. You should see the acrobats." He said know smugly "They really know how to put on a show."

"Stop bragging Rai." Kimiko scolded slapping him on the arm "Just because your one of them doesn't m-"

"Mean there that good but they are Kimi they are." Raimundo exclaimed "The tricks some can pull and with such grace. You will never see cerography like you will see tonight. I have seen some of them train since I was a little boy and they put in so much work. There all just amassing especially the girls." He cut of their and turned to the boy begging to open his mouth "Not a word Omi. They have such grace you know and can really make the show worth watching. We use very little animals in are shows you know, animal cruelty and all that, and one of acrobats uses them in such a way it makes the how one of a kind."

"Why thank you young man." A female voice cut in and the boy who had been lost in a rant spun round shocked to face the woman who had crossed there paths. She was as tanned as him and had a tall and very slim body. She was wearing running suit of joggers, trainers, a tank top and a sleeveless hoody that hid her head. Rai saw as red painted lips dropped as she took him in having already realised who it was by the feather tattoo he saw on her shoulder blade.

"Raimundo Pedrosa?" She asked him which he nodded in reply "Rai" She screamed but in came out as a squawk and she jumped on the startled monk with a hug. She then continued to ramble on about how much she had missed him and she hadn't believed his mother when she said he would be returning. Rai turned to try to explain to his girlfriend why a woman was hugging him only to find that her mouth was hanging open as was Dojo, Clay and Omi's. That's right they weren't used to circus foke. What they were shocked by was, as she had jumped him her hood had cam down revealing her cropped hair that was collared every shade of the rainbow.

"Guys this is Ana Lovetta or as we call her on stage 'senhora de papagaio'. It means parrot lady. She's also one of my cousins." As the shock wore of his companions they began to greet the eccentric bird woman who had yet to let go of her newly returned cousin.

"Hey I'm Kimiko Tohomiko. Nice to meet-"

"PRIMO"Kimiko was cut of as the excited Anne pounced from Raimundo to her with a squawk.

"Off course I know who you are. Your the one who has stolen are little Rai-Rai's heart." She giggled hugging the little Japanese girl desperately "And you know what that means?"

"What?" Kimiko asked nervously.

"Your Família" Ana squawked loudly clutching the other girl to her before quickly letting go "Oops I forgot I need to finish my run. I really am a scatter brained bird aren't I?" She grinned sheepishly at the others before running off "Adeus. Rai I'll tell tia and tio you're here ok."

"Rai?"

"Yes Kimiko?" Raimundo replied trying to stifle his laughter at her expression.

"Are all you're family that mad." As he thought of the answer to the question all Raimundo could do was burst out laughing. He began to lead the towards the circus ground not able to stop till there was just one more corner to turn.

"You have no idea Kimiko, no idea."

* * *

"Are we there yet."

"No Spicer, we're not" Chase growled at the annoying Goth. They had just arrived in the city were the air dragons circus was in and the boy had asked every half a minute how much longer. Jack was wearing his normal uniform despite advice not to, and in the hot climate of Brazil he was very hot, tired and irritable. Or maybe the more accurate word is irritating.

"I told you Jack. You need to wear something cooler and easier to blend in the crowds with." Ashley sighed as annoyed as Chase with the constant wining of there companion. "Just change into the clothes I brought you."

"No! I don't want to wear preppy clothes"

"But there not preppy Jack, I made sure." The cat obsessed girl wined back.

"The answer is still no."

"Chase looks fine Jack and I chose his clothes." She pleaded indicating Chase who stood in a tight green muscle shirt and black jeans with is normally loose hair tied back. Jack had to admit Chase did look good in Ashley's selection of clothing, the proper bad boy image as well, but that wouldn't mean he would.

"The answers still no Ashley."

Chase by now had drowned out the incessant prattling of the two adolescents and instead was looking at one of the posters. He had to admit the circus the Brazilian monk's family was part of was certainly interesting. The poster he was looking at was of the some of the acrobats or aerial dancers as the circus dubbed them. They were mostly woman and they combined there acts with other aspects of the circus such as animals and fire breathing. It seemed to be something he had never seen before and that's saying something after being alive for over 1500 years.

At the moment he was at one picture of a woman with multi coloured hair and a costume to patch who and birds flying round her in what seemed perfect synchronisation. The name bellow said 'senhora de papagaio'. _Lady Parrot_ he thought bringing up his learned but rarely used Portuguese. When you have been alive has long as he you need to amuse yourself somehow.

He was brought out of his musing by a sharp nail being pointed at the colourful acrobat right in front of him. He growled at Ashley but she ignored him, continuing her argument with Jack.

"Jack I'm not going to make you look like the bird lady."

"I know you won't. You hate birds, but still no is a no." Jack retorted looking smug as Katnappe nodded her head to the act she hated birds unless she was eating them, but her expression soon turned annoyed as Jack was still refusing. "Look Ashley I… Whoa look at that one." He pointed to the acrobat on a separated poster. As Ashley started shouting at him for trying to distract her Chase lost his last straw and before he realised himself Jack was quickly change in an alleyway with Ashley standing guard to make sure no one saw him or he ran. Chase then looked at the next poster, the one Jack liked. Probably nothing that good. Chase for once was proved wrong by jack.

The whole poster was made up of different pictures of the same girl combined in different ways such as over lapping and one faded over another. She wasn't as different as others sticking to purely to acrobatics in most acts but she did some of the riskiest things it seemed though you would have to watch to tell. Also from the pictures you could tell she used different apparatus to normal acrobats as one picture had her dancing on the same material used for Aerial silk suspend above the crowd. The most attention grabbing picture was the centre one. White silk was wrapped around part of her left leg, her right foot and one of her wrists. She was leaning back towards the right but it was bent in a perfect arch. Her back wasn't the only thing contortioned as her limbs were also in the perfect angle for the trick but not tackily as she still held so much grace in her form. It just looked natural and dare he say it beautiful. The most intriguing thing about all the pictures though was in every one you could not see her face, for in most her head was turned away and in the remaining few she had a mask on.

All he could tell was she was blonde and had startling green eyes. The sign said 'a princesa aérea'. If her pictures didn't tell it enough that confirmed how good she was. It meant 'The princess of air'.

"I told you it was good." Jack gloated to Ashley behind Chase.

"And so did I" She replied back indicating Jacks ensemble.

There was surprisingly some Jack in the clothes Ashley picked out. He wore black cargo pants and a white T-shirt that had a black skull on. His makeup had been removed so his sweat didn't smug it and his goggles had been replaced with black sunglasses with yellow lenses.

Chase turned and looked at the grudgingly agreeing Jack, before waling off, the two lackeys following relishing in the new silence.

That lasted till he turned the next corner.

It was a busier street then the previous ones meaning there was one blonde woman jogging down the street. She was heading to cross the road to there side and that's when Chase's peace end.

She had just stepped onto the road when a motor roared to life and a van turned the corner heading right for her. She seemed to freeze at the same time Chase sprung to action. Knowing the girl wouldn't notice, Jack and shyly already knew and the driver of the van… Well he didn't care about the driver of the van; he used his superior speed to run across the road and grab the girl and pull her away from the dangerous vehicle.

He didn't notice much for a few moments as he glared at the speeding van but a hand on his shoulder brought him out of his stupor.

"Obrigado Senhor" The girl he was holding spoke. Even though he knew the words he still found himself questioning her. He had a reason though, even in a more human appearance he was still an intimidating man and normally made most wary with his mere prescience.

"I'm sorry, you don't speak Portuguese do you sir?" The girl asked embarrassed as her green eyes met his directly. Another rare occurrence.

"I do, I'm just shocked." He replied honestly before he helped her up. She smiled softly in thanks and he couldn't help but notice tired circles under her eyes.

"Chase are you ok." Chase sighed as Jack and Ashley ran over t them. Spicer wasn't acting; he really was stupid enough to think Chase Young would be hurt by a mere van. Chase decided to keep pretences up.

"Yes Jack I am. Are you Senhorita?" He asked the girl.

"I'm fine thanks to you." She smiled before a shocked expression crossed her face "I'm sorry I got too… I got to go. I have to finish my run and I said I would pick up… Ah pick up some… some…some bread. Yes that's it, for my mother" She stuttered nervously, maybe she was regaining her senses. "I hope to see you again, Chase was it?" Maybe not "Obrigado again,Obrigado. Adeus" She began to run the opposite way to were they were going. Chase tuned away as Jack used his pocket translator bot to tell him what she had just said.

"Wait" He stopped abruptly to turn and saw the girl quickly jog part way back. "Come to the show at the circus tonight. I can get you good seats. I work there. Acrobat. Ok?" She asked stuttered nervously, scratching the back of her head. Chase nodded surprised to find he also had a found smile on his face. She nodded back before running back the way she was going before she stopped again her face cringing. "Um I forgot to say..." She shouted back to the group "Um My names Rosalita ok." Chase nodded again and saw her run of again and rounded a corner.

He turned back to his companions a strange, fond smile on his face.

"He sure looks like the cat that got the cream, doesn't he?" Ashley muttered to Jack as they rounded one of the last corners but gulped when Chase turned to look at her. "I said she was a nervous little, thing wasn't she? Hey why don't we go tonight cant pass up good seats can we." She tried to distract him as they continued on the path silently and she began to calm down thanks to the quietness but was quickly shocked out of it as they turned the last corner.

"Yes, I would like to see her again, and like you said Katnappe." He turned and smirked at the feline like woman "It's too good an opportunity to pass up."

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**A/N: Lot more Portuguesethis time isent there. Again I am sorry if there was a problem with my translation. So Chase seems to be intrested in the girl, and there is a crasy multi colired parriot Ldy. Whats going to happen next...**

**Well just keep reading and you'll find out**

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	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own ****Xiaolin Showdown**, it's the property of whoever owns it.

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Chapter 3

As luck would have it the two parties arrived at the site of the circus art exactly the same moment and it wasn't pleasant.

Actually that's an under statement. You see Raimundo had one thing on his mind at the time, his family and more precisely is younger sister. She wasn't just his younger sister, she was his youngest sibling all together and the one he was closest too. If you considered all the other facts concerning those two it wasn't surprising. All in all though he was very protective of his family, practically this sister and when he saw Chase Young the greatest fighter on the Heylin side well, you do the math.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" The young dragon of wind shouted at the Heylin side members, forgetting it seemed the agreement they had made and that he was actually getting along with them outside of battle, praticuly Chase for some strange reason.

Chase who, because his mind was partially still wrapped up in his thoughts of Rosalita, was unsurprised by the outburst and left it to the others to answer the question.

"Why shouldn't we be here?" Katnappe decided to confront the angered Raimundo. "It's a free world after all."

"Yeah I wanted to get a tan." Crickets sounded at that uncharacteristic statement from the albino boy genius who spend so much time in his basement the monks had began to think he hated the sun.

"Anyway." Rai grounded out through clenched teeth "Why are you here? As in outside this circus, the one were my family works."

"We do actually have a reasonable answer to that." Chase decided to confront the leader of the monks himself; afraid his young companions would make things worse. "I won't go in to the long monologue of who told who." He paused to glare at Jack and Ashley "But the news you were going to Brazil has spread through the Heylin side, the part about it being a social visit was left out though."

"So" The disgruntled boy asked.

"So, are side things there is a Wu here. Duh!" Jack answered before Chase meaning he received a glare not just from the monks but his leader as well.

"Let me clear that up for you. Were basically here to round up are team members who, seen as Wuya has gone on Holiday, think there is a Wu to be had here. As they won't know where to go they'll most likely try to find you, hence why we're here." Chase told them still glaring at the boy genius.

"Well I-"

"Raimundo o meu menino. Você voltou para casa à mãe." A short woman came running down to him from the circus tent cutting him off with her shouts. When she reached the boy she threw her arms around him spouting out Portuguese at such as speed even Chase couldn't understand, Raimundo did though and he began to calm her down.

"Yes mãe, I'm home." He laughed "Please let go, I can't breathe."

"You cheeky pequeno menino" The woman chuckled slapping her sons arm "Are these your friends?" She asked indicating the group of adolescents.

"Yes mãe! I'll introduce you" He answered "Guys this is my mother Flávia Pedrosa. Mãe, this is Clay Bailey"

"Howdy Mrs. Pedrosa" He greeted.

"Omi."

"Greetings mother of Raimundo"

"And this is Kimi-"

"FILHA" Flávia shouted imitating her niece in her greeting of her son's girlfriend. "I have heard so much about you from Rai-Rai. O what a pretty menina. Welcome to the família."

"Nice to meet you to Mrs Ped-"

"Não, não. No formalities, call me mãe." The small but strong woman insisted as she hugged the small Japanese girl "Or a least Flávia." She added probably seeing the uncertainty in Kimiko's eyes.

"Yes Mrs-. I mean Flávia." Kimiko stopped herself at the sharp look given to her by the Portuguese woman.

"That goes to you two as well." She told Omi and Clay. "Now who are these three? Raimundo you didn't introduce your other friends." She turned to the three from the Heylin side.

"Mãe these are not my fr-"

"Ashley, Mrs Pedrosa" The blonde girl cut him off "You have done a brilliant job of raising Raimundo. I have known your son for a long time, off course not as long as Jack here." She indicated the still Goth by her side.

"Hey"

"Very nice to meet you and please call me Flávia." She smiled kindly "And who are you dear." She looked expectantly towards Chase who had been distancing himself from the rest of the group.

"Chase Young, Sra. Pedrosa." He greeted in Portuguese "Ele é um prazer reunião você."

"I like him Rai-Rai" Flávia giggled "And so strong too. You would do well for my Rosie."

"Don't let her hear you call her that mãe. She'll-." He stopped in his humorous musing to give a pointed glare at his mother and the Chase "Mãe! What have I told you about setting her up?"

"Not to my filho but I ignore you." She answered simply turning away from her sons scowling face. "O look Rai-Rai the rest of the family are coming down to meet you."

The next ten minutes were filled with the monks and two of the Helyin's being greeted by seven Raimundo's siblings, the rest of his cousin, plus aunts, uncles, godparent and finally his father and grandparents. Kimiko had found her repeatedly hugged by all members of the family being called Primo, Filha, irmã and filha grande. Apparently the Pedrosa's, plus extended family, all thought of her as family, and the way they showed it only proved Rai's statement of Kimiko having no idea how mad they were. This caused a lot of amusement from the bystanders who were being greeted in a lot calmer manner.

The only one not involved was the Immortal Prince of Darkness who was pondering a fact that had struck him looking at Mrs Pedrosa and the statement she had made. It was more or less the mention of a 'Rosie' and what Raimundo ha said suggested the girls name wasn't actually that. It was maybe something like Rosella, Rosaline or maybe Rosalita. The girl did work here and she did bear a resemblance to the woman who had just greeted him. Also one of the man who was introduced as Justino Pedrosa had the same green eyes and was apparently Raimundo's father. This ides that Rosalita was Raimundo's sister gave him mixed feelings. He was happy, surprisingly; because he did like the girl, but he was uncertain because he was too dangerous to be close to, and if the idea was right he would be. Plus he didn't think Raimundo would take too kindly to him if he thought he liked his sister, and things had been calmer when they were only fighting over the Shen Gong Wu.

Yet the only Pedrosa sibling he had not met yet was the wind dragons little sister, little being the operative word. Rosalita had seemed to be the same age as Raimundo, though it was hard to tell. Plus names that used Rose weren't uncommon and he was sure there was more than one girl in the circus that had it in her name.

"Yeah Ros, will do." He was brought out of his thoughts by a whispered conversation to his right and saw one of the boy's cousins, Ana he thought, on the phone with this Ros. Probably that Rosie the woman mentioned. A sly smile crossed her face as she closed the phone "This is going to be good, so very good" She whispered to herself before speaking up "Why don't we head in to the camp guys, were holding up the traffic." She indicated to the bare street causing a few laughs but still everyone did what she said.

As they walked they were greeted by other members of the circus, al of which seemed glad to see Raimundo had returned, but thankfully didn't join them in the clearing in the middle of the site which they had gathered.

Chases interest had been grabbed by the brightly colored girl he recognized from the poster he kept his eye on her as she went round the group whispering to random members who nodded and then snickered, strange.

He was suddenly distracted as Jack tripped over his own feet and into his back making him lose sight of the parrot Lady till she reappeared with a carrier bag of bread. He remembered something a certain girl had said

"_Pick up some… some… some bread. Yes that's it, for my mother"_

His hearing suddenly picked up a paced, fast set of footsteps running towards the group, more precisely to the boy who stood in the middle with a wide birth around him.

Said boy was questioning this very fact "Come on guys, I don't smell that bad."

* * *

**A/N: Yes! Yes you do**

**Only kidding so chapter 3 up and out of the cage. So who's comeing, is it the mysterious Rosie. Or is it Ros? Are either of the two Rosalita? Are they both?**

**No the real question is does a certainimortal prince like Raymundo's little sister. **

**Ha Ha Ha (Creepy soundeffects, lightning, thunder all that Jazz.)**

**Seriously though, whats goig to happen next.**

**Sorry for any problems with Portuguese translating, please forgive e and dont chase me around with pitchforks.**

**Click the green button and review**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"We know irmão but someone wanted to give you a special welcome home." One of his sisters replied causing his face pale a bit and his face to spin round. He heard just a bit too late the footsteps and didn't have time to avoid the attack.

Well it was a greeting, some sort of hug to be exact. A girl, for it was much to slim to be a boy, pounced on his back and wrapped her limbs around his body in a way that was only possible if she was a contortionist.

Raimundo spun on his foot trying to disentangle the girl but as soon as one limb was removed it would rewrap itself in a more complicated way. Laughter from spectators filled the area, though it was a bit hesitant on the Xiaolin monk's side as they were worried it was a real attack.

Raimundo muffled shouts could be heard through the girl's arms that she had wrapped round his mouth and eyes. The girl was giggling by know and that was soon turned to full fledge giggling as the boy who was now tired of trying to buck her of through spinning and running had began to do small, precise flips showing this wasn't exactly an uncommon occurrence for the two of them.

As he began to pant in between tricks the girl decided to have mercy on the monk and un-wrap her arms from his face. She instead had them wrapped round his neck in a loose hug, her head lying on top of his. It would in fact look like a standers piggy back if it wasn't for the fact her legs were holding his arms still in a straightjacket type fashion.

"Guys!" Raimundo addressed his friends slightly disgruntled by the human straight jacket but mostly amusement and wistfulness like he had missed it "I would like you to meet my little- Ouch" The last part was due to him being slapped on the head by a disgruntled contortionist "I mean my sister Rosalita Pedrosa."

"Pleased to meet you." She greeted "Let me guess your Omi" She pointed to the little bald boy who nodded "Clay"

"Yes little missy." He nodded his hat to her with a smile which he returned.

"It's Rosalita, Ros or anything else you can come up with that's not insulting or Rosie" She put on a disgusted face at the last option before turning to an obviously nervous Kimiko. "I'm not going to hug you Kimiko, I think my family had done enough of that." She laughed with an embarrassed smile on her face which Kimiko returned. "Please don't leave Senhor Air head here because of them." That caused more laughter and annoyed expression from her brother which he tried to aim at her face but failed badly at due to their position.

"I'm serious you know." She stated loudly before smirking "About both points."

"That's it 'Rosie'." Rai taunted "Get of me so I can get you back for that." He demanded trying to loosen his arms only to find her legs tinted there hold on them.

"What. Have. I. told. You. About. Calling. Me…" She ground out sharply her hands going up to his ears. "ROSIE" With that she took a hold of her ears and began to twist them forcefully. This went on for a few seconds before her arms returned to their previous position as she whispered sweetly in his ear, but loud enough for everyone to hear "You got that."

"Yes Ros" He grumbled.

"Ok you two that's enough fighting" Their mother scolded "Rai why don't you introduce the rest of your friends."

"Rosalita meet Jack Spicer, Ashley-. " He paused as she whispered something in his ear a confused look on her face "I'll explain that later." He finally pointed to the last member of the group. "Lastly there is…"

"Chase Young

"Chase"

The two siblings said at the same time and the now confused Raimundo barely noticed his sister un bend herself from his body in a expert display of contortion and walk gracefully part way to the man they had both been able to identify.

"I can't believe I didn't put it together" She gasped as she got a good look at him "It's so obvious. Rai even described you to me. I should have been able to tell who you were like I could the others." She said in wonderment "And I'm meant to be the smarter of the two of us, though…" She trailed of with a skeptical look at her brother "That's not saying much is it."

"I would have to agree with you there. He can be rather foolish" Chase agreed looking critically at the dragon of wind along with her.

"Hey!" Raimundo snapped angrily at the two of them ignoring his parents and teammates muttered agreement with Ros and Chase. "How do you two know each other anyway?" A look of questionable panic crossed the girls face, though it seemed to be directed to her whole family rather than just her brother.

Before she could speak though Jack decided to answer for her. "Chase saved her from being run over by a van this morning."

Silence filled the clearing as the Pedrosa family froze in place. While he had been talking Rosalita had made a move as if to stop him but as he finished she cringed into herself and smacked herself in the face.

"Rosalita"

"Van"

"Run Over" Her family murmured Jack nodding foolishly as they spoke.

"A VAN NEARLY RUN OVER OUR ROSALITA" They rather creepily shouted all as one before they broke off into separated tirades.

Chase, Ashley, Jack and the rest of the dragons looked at her questioningly.

"I'm the youngest in the family and I was also very weak as a child leaving them all extremely protective." She groaned pinching the bridge of her nose with her hand. She sighed deeply looking to her face and brushing her hair away from her face for a moment before she turned to them. "Come on dragons, I'll show you were you'll be sleeping. Clay can you get Raimundo." The cowboy turned to his friend to see him frozen in place a hard expression on his face. They looked at Ros questionably again and she quickly explained "Me and him have always been very close which has left him the most protective of all of them." She laughed to herself "You're lucky he agreed to go to the temple you know, he didn't want to leave me alone." She smiled fondly and began to lead them towards the main structure were the shows were obviously held.

**(A/N: Ok I don't know how to explain this so paint your own picture and adapt if for the acts and stuff I mention.)**

"Unfortunately we have a lack of space at the moment so you four will be sleeping in the main arena at night with me." She explained "You can level your stuff in one of the dressing rooms. Um Heylin people?" She asked shocking them that she knew who they were."

"How do you-?"

"Rai tells me everything so I can give him advice, though he mostly ignores it." She said simply, kicking her brother who was now managing to walk with her rather than be dragged by Clay.

"Ok then. Um what do you want to know?" Chase asked.

"I was just wondering where you would be staying, that is if you're staying the night. It's just that if I don't offer my parents will, well once they get out of protective mode they will." She trailed of not realizing she hadn't told him what she was offering but she felt the looks on her and after a few moments realized her mistake "Sorry." She said embaressed "Well if you don't have anywhere else you can stay here."

"We'll think about it!" He stated bluntly.

"Ok that's good." She smiled before leading them into the arena.

An hour later the rest of the three monks and three Heylin's were very comfortable having settled down to watch rehearsals.

They had already seen a few basic acrobatic acts and a lot of floor work done my Rosalita and some of the acrobats. She had told them she wanted the main acrobatics to be a surprise and when they did eventually get up there would only be doing the basics.

Right now though they were sat in a group having lunch while Ros having the whole 'Why there are Heylin's here' explanation which she had asked Rai for.

"So you're worried they'll attack you guys because they think there is a Wu and as you're here that would break you're agreement not to attack near innocents." She stated straitening it out in her head. Jack had already confused her a few times with his confusing prattling and was at the moment in a not talking time out. "One last question. Do I count as an innocent, because from what Rai's told me you attack the temple often and I'm moving in there, so..?"

"I think in that situation it will be a case of you staying out the way and us not hurting you." Chase said looking at the Xiaolin dragons for agreement which they gave grudgingly. They had been hoping they would just stop attacking the temple all together.

"I can do that." She chirped.

"But can the Heylin side" She pretended to not notice her brothers statement. Due to her situation she had decide to take a neutral standing point in the whole matter. It was a rather tough place to be in really. She was sister to the leader of the Xiaolin dragons and a leading Heylin had saved her life. Conflict of interest in full force. It didn't help that she had always like Chase, even with what her brother had told her. His story seemed tragic and unfair if she was completely honest and…

Well she could probably right a book on her views of Chase Young, but to be honest that wasn't important right now. Speaking of which.

"Rai can I-"

"Rosalita can you explain something to me?" She rolled her eyes knowing Omi couldn't see her. Since meting her he had asked questions about the circus, mostly about how girls were strong enough to do the tricks she did. When he had quoted 'The Ancient Guide to Females' and told her women were not suited for performing and it was the job of men the boys actually they had to hold both her, Kimiko and Ashley from attacking him, which wasn't too bad. Chase was the one closest to her and he was rather muscled and… Going of track. The fact is someone really had to update the Q-tip on the modern view of women or she, with the help of her two new friends, were going to invoke a plan called 'Omi tied to a post, Rotten tomatoes and a lot of feminists.' Well the title needed work but the point is still made.

"What Omi" She sighed turning to face the little yellow boy.

"Raimundo said his little sister was coming to live with us but you don't seem younger or…" He stopped to think for a minute "I get it, it's because girls are always smaller than boys."

"_Funny most girls are taller then you Omi_" She thought but her agitation at the water dragon was overridden by her anger for the other. Kimiko and Ashley can deal with the Simpson reject.

"Rai?" She said sweetly putting a cute face on her face.

"What." He said nervously, he doesn't trust her but to be fair it was with good reason.

"Why have you been saying I'm you're little sister." She snapped

"You are"

"How"

"Well I'm taller."

"I'm smarter"

"I'm cooler"

"Reckless more like. I'm more sensible."

"This coming from the girl who free falls from the rafters as part of her act."

"O please you would do it to if you had stayed and learned."

"I've been to more countries."

"I have the most fans"

"Because you kept performing, I have-"

"Hey guys stop for a minute." Kimiko interrupted the siblings who were by now in each other's faces. "How do those things determine who's oldest" They shrugged "Stick to facts that make sense."

"Ok" Rosalita agreed "Well how about this. Where twins."

"I was born first." Raimundo ignored the astonished looks of his friends who had not known that fact.

"Five minute time difference"

"I was born before midnight and you after."

"How do we know that, it could have been me?"

"The first baby was bald and the second blonde."

"Well the second's hair color could have changed."

"Even so there not going to mess up gender Ros. I do have something that would determine that I'm a boy."

"Eww" Ros squealed slapping her brother harshly on the arm "Raimundo what have I told you about referring to that while I'm eating."

"Not to" He grinned cheekily "So do I win."

"Yes you do know shut it big brother or you'll loose the thing that determines you're a boy." The rest of the group just looked on amused, well Omi looked confused but that happened a lot when he was outside the temple and in a modern environment.

"Rosalita can you answer something for me?"

"What Omi?"

"Why don't you and Raimundo look the same? O is it because you're a-"

"No it's not because I'm a girl" She snapped at the small yellow boy "Where just non identical twins Omi." She said sweetly trying to calm down. Omi's questions were getting on her nerves. They tended to either come when she was calm or about to ask something important. Speaking of which.

"Rai can I speak to you in private?" She asked quickly her eyes twitching to Omi. Her twin using the weird connection all twins seemed to have, could tell she wanted to be away from the walking talking yellow snooker ball and at the same time the seriousness of the situation.

"Why don't we go up to the platforms like usual" He smiled fondly at his closest friend before bending to whisper in her ear. "I don't think Omi's tall enough to climb the ladder up there." His small joke gave the reaction he wanted and she giggled before walking to the ladder. Raimundo quickly explained to Kimiko where he was going and to pass it on if the others noticed, and followed behind his sister.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Since they were able to manage it the Pedrosa twins loved climbing the ladders to reach the platforms were acts would dismount from. The first time they managed it at seven, even though they should have been too young to manage, people said they were born for heights and would be some of the best acrobats the circus would ever have.

Off course this was true. No one would ever compare to how well they mastered the art, but that wasn't the reason they climbed the ladder.

They first met in there mothers womb and that's when there relationship was made and nothing will ever compare to that meeting. Raimundo was the bigger and the protector, Rosalita the smaller who needed protection. That was the reason Rai was born first, to check for danger.

They loved areas that reminded them of the place they first met, whether it was under sheets or hiding in a cupboard. But they could always be found and easily got to, it wasn't safe and Raimundo would not have there sister somewhere that wasn't safe. Strangely enough though he thought the platforms were the safest place in the whole circus. It may have been because he saw his father go up there every day and come back down all flushed faced and happy, a rare occurrence when Ros was little and in and out of hospital al the time. It may have because of his destiny as the dragon of air. We can never know but it did make him work at getting him and his sister up there, and they managed it, together.

Through team work and balance they got up there despite there age and size. When one would fall they would pull the other up and so on so fourth. They off course never went to the highest platform at that age but up to the training height a least. They weren't born for heights they were born to be twins, to be together.

They still did it that way. Rai was the protector who came up last to catch her, but always would always find a way past her so he was the first one on the platform. Ros would find the safest way up using the responsibility that helped them to make the first climb. They were a perfect team.

"So what's the problem Ros?" Rai asked her softly from his spot on the platform, close enough to grab her if she was to fall but leaving enough space so he wasn't crowding her.

"Well… You se- It's just… Really its noth-"

"Don't try and deny anything Rosalita." He commanded "You always stutter like that when you don't want someone to worry. And stop walking around the platform like that you'll fall." He teased lightly to tone down the sharpness of his command so she as comfortable.

"Yeah, you have a point" She agreed "You know when I met Chase this morning I got like that when I realised he noticed I had bags under my eyes." She then collapsed into a sitting position. When Omi first saw her sit like that he panicked thinking she had lost all her bones. The others had found her impressive and Omi funny, practically Rai who had never seen her do the trick that smoothly before and knew how difficult it was.

"I noticed that to." Rai admitted looking at the area bellow her eyes "I'm guessing that has something to do with why you asked to talk to me."

"Yeah!" She admitted "You know Chase probably thought I had a crush on him and-"

"Back on topic Ros." Raimundo ordered unsure if she was trying to distract him or if she actually liked Chase. Well actually he knew she did in a way. She found his story 'tragic'.

"Rai I'm in trouble." The statement shocked him to the core and for some reason one thing went straight to the forefront of his mind. "I'm not pregnant Rai." Now it's diminished back to the shadows, waiting for another opportunity to strike. "I explain from the start."

"It began a year ago; I found weird things kept happening. Well not exactly weird, but unlucky, and it was weird that they all happened so close together and to me." She muddled through showing she was confused by it "Sometimes they wouldn't be too bad and sometimes they would be really bad."

"In what way?" He asked.

"Um they always hurt me physically and I guess I was beginning to get a bit paranoid, so mentally as well." She looked down at her hands which she was fiddling with "I was close to calling you but then they eased up a few months ago." She shook her head slightly and began to look up "At the same time though strange people turned up." His body tensed.

"They never approached me or anything like that, but they were in the crowd at every performance, in the streets when I took my morning runs." She looked back down "Everywhere I went, and there eyes were always on me, they never left me. I thought at first obsessive fans, but it just didn't fit." She looked at him with the corner of her eye. "Three months ago they began to approach me."

"It started of as simple things. Asking the time, needing directions. I was wary and would get out of there as fast as I could." Raimundo nodded, liking the action she took. "Then it got harder. They would try to draw me into conversations, get me to actually show them a place rather then direst them. Eventually I was even asked out by a few of the males on a date."

"How many of these people were male?" He asked her.

"Most of them, only a few females to be honest. Most were reasonably young looking as well." She looked at him and saw the concern "I thought the same thing Rai, about what they wanted and tried to stay further away. Then one grabbed me though, and it hurt. He used so much strength." Her body shook slightly and she gulped "It kept getting worse and they kept saying weird things. There so violent. They kept trying to drag me places. It scared me so much." Rai clenched his fists knowing she was beginning to cry. "The scariest thing is during these times, when it got really bad; I fought them, and got away. The thing is I don't know how I learnt. You know I'm not a fighter Rai even though I learnt Capoeira with you, I was more into the dance aspect more." She laughed a bit but he knew it wasn't real "I've been using fighting styles I had never even seen before Raimundo. I know stuff about each person and what they would do to me, but not why. Why they do these things."

"Rai, I have never been this scared. I haven't been sleeping or eating properly because I've been so paranoid. You know some of them want to kill me. I'm afraid that was what the accident this morning was, a murder attempt. I need to be somewhere safe Rai, and you're who I always feel safe with. That's why I told mãe I missed you, that I wanted to visit you, take a break from the circus and live with you."

"I know I'm burdening you with my problems but it's so bad Rai. I think they're going to start hurting others to get to me. I know I'm being selfish and needy but I need you. Please help me Rai, please I-"

"Shut it." He ordered his crying sister before pulling her into his arms "Just shut it Rosalita." He felt her arms wrap round him and cling to his shirt. They sat like that for five minutes, him just letting her cry into his shirt before he pulled her up to face him eye to eye and he knew she could see the anger in his eyes.

"Listen Rosalita, I'm not angry with you." He assured "I'm angry at those people who hurt you, you hear. The only thing I could possibly think of being angry with you about is how you waited this long to tell me any of this."

"Well you were so busy and it's not something I could tell you other the phone" He shushed her before pulling her back into a hug.

"Listen everything's going to be fine" He hugged her again as he said this "Is it ok if I tell the Master Fung and the rest of the dragons." He felt her head nod and smiled slightly, sometimes she was too independent. It was because she felt she relied on everyone to much as a child because she was weak. Now she basically refuses to go to anyone for help, anyone but him. She even seemed to have gone as far as to hide bruises as from what she was telling him having them was a certainty.

"Cheer up sis." He smiled cockily at her "No one can hurt you with me and my friends around" He said that with a hint of seriousness that shone through the bragging like a beacon of reassurance in the fog of doubt. "Why don't you practice? You always feel better when you're risking life and limb in the aid of making a spectacular show." He joked good humouredly.

"Actually I need to speak to you about that" She looked worriedly at him but he could tell she was a bit happier. "You know how I said I wasn't sleeping" He nodded "Well I'm really scared I m going to mess up, practically in my solos when there's no one else up here to help me and I was wondering…"

"Yes" He coursed.

"If you could be up here as well, just in the wings." She pleaded "You know you have always been aware when I'm in danger, and we have done it before. I'm just afraid I'm going to fall and…" She rambled of to her brother's amusement before he shut her up with his hand.

"Rosalita of course I will" He smiled fondly "Just let me tell mãe and pai, ok." He then saw her look pointedly at him "O yeah they are going to make be part of the show if I agree to this." He groaned worriedly "Well I'll just have to put up with the tights; I think Kimiko may like me in them anyway." He watched happily as his sister giggled before he began to descend the stairs before her.

As he concentrated on climbing down his mind began to wander though, to what she had just told him. Images of mystery men hurting his sister attempting to do things to her filled his mind and flooded his senses like one of Omi's attacks. His Rosalita was so delicate, just like the flower she was named after, and even though she had her own thorns, and they seemed to be very special thorns if what she had told him was right, they may not be strong enough to face this alone. That meant she needed him and that's what was going to happen. These men better run because Raimundo Pedrosa would never forgive those that hurt his Ros.

But he could only protect her physically, he could tell enough damage had been done to her mental state already and he didn't know how to heal or protect that. She needed more help than just himself, even though he wanted to be all that she needed like when they were children.

As he helped her with the last few steps and they turned back to the group, a new worry spread through him as he saw her face. She didn't look depressed but she wasn't like she was before they had the talk. He may be fine with his friends and masters knowing but not anyone from the Heylin side.

"Hey Rosalita, Raimundo. I have figured out why you Raimundo were born before Rosalita." The twins in synch looked over to the small boy "It's because boys are faster than slow girls."

Rai smiled fondly as his sister lunged for the small monk, not bothering to try and stop her. Well Omi was going to be good for distracting her that's for sure.


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own Xiaolin Showdown; it's the property of whoever owns it.**

Chapter 6

"What did you want to tell us Rai?" The monks and dojo were sat in the shade of some trees as Rai took a break from his training for the show that night. The twins had been right in their suspicion there father would want Rai to perform tonight, but fortunately it was only one act. This meant he had enough time to talk to his team mates before her had to go get ready for the show.

"I need your help with something" He admitted "My sister to be exact. Rosalita's in trouble." He proceeded to tell them what his twin had shared with him.

"Off course we'll help you protect her." Kimiko reassured.

"Yeah no mystery men will get past me. They will be crushed by my superior skills." Omi said that, of course, but Raimundo cut him off sharply.

"I don't need help protecting her." He stated angrily "I never needed help with that. I have been her protector since… since…Since forever. I don't need help protecting her."

They sat in silence for a few moments after his out burst. Whether it was because of protectiveness, over confidence or anything else they new he was wrong to think he could protect Rosalita by himself. These people weren't normal and were as dangerous as the enemies they faced themselves.

"Partner, I would agree with you if these people were the normal run of the mill attackers that you see on the street. You can deal with them fine on your own." Clay stated "But there not. They have managed to follow her for half a year and she's part of a travelling circus Rai, and from what she's told you they haven't missed a day. That would be hard for even the most serious of fans."

"Clays right Rai." Kimiko continued "Plus Rosalita has said herself there is something going on with her, something not natural. You will need are help to figure that out, maybe more. Plus you can't be with her all the time."

"I can't try." He argued.

"Yes you can but there's no guarantee you will always be there. We have our training and are job as the Xiaolin dragons to think about." Kimiko retorted "and to be honest I don't think she's the sort of person that likes being crowded all the time."

"She's not." He agreed smiling fondly before his face took a disappointed look. "But that's because she doesn't like being protected or worried about. I'm the only one, the only one she's told about all of this, and she took such a long time to tell me. She should have come to me when it all started." He was talking loudly now but so much as to draw attention. "And it's all because she didn't want anyone to worry. She's independent, too independent. I don't know why she's only come to me with this, maybe because she knows about me being a dragon or maybe it's because I have always been the one to protect her. All I know is she asked form my help." He turned to his friends sighing "And she won't accept anyone else's."

"But do you ant are help?" Clay asked.

"Yes, No, maybe. I honestly don't have any idea." He stumbled over his answer before talking a deep breath and starting again "I don't know if I want your help to protect her physically, and in the end she's not likely to accept your help. She even may be hesitant with mine." He sighed again "But that's only physically."

"I don't think I understand" His girlfriend told him confused.

"Listen. No one knows Rosalita better then me. Right?" They nodded having noticed them being able to tell each others emotions. "Well whatever the situation she has always been emotionally strong. Maybe a few tears will fall, a few nightmares. That's what others will see. And even I, who's sees more then anyone, she can hid her true feelings from." He smiled fondly at a thought. "Mãe told me once that we are chalk and cheese. Apparently she never cried a lot as a baby while I was a boom box." He laughed a bit before continuing.

"The last time I saw her cry like she did today was after the death of our grande avô, that's great grandfather" He told them quickly knowing they wouldn't recognise the word. "And that was through sadness. Today she cried like that through fear." He sighed and repeated himself quietly "Through fear."

"THROUGH FEAR." He busted out suddenly standing up as he did, shocking Kimiko who had been rubbing his arm in comfort. "She is one of the riskiest acrobats this circus has. She pulls tricks others wouldn't even attempt 'with' a safety net and harness." He exaggerated the 'with' before continuing. "She rarely even uses those two pieces of equipment you know. I think she only actually uses the safety nets when up there with others and a harness…." He huffed in agitation before continuing. "Only through my family's insistence is she using that in her free fall jump from the top of the tent, and she takes it of once she's secure in the aerial silk. She is fearless when it comes to acrobatics and much more." He paused to catch his breath before continuing "She'll stand-up to anyone if she believes she's in the right, however big they are. She'll try new foods, new sport. She should have given me my parents and the rest of the circus grey hairs by now."

"And these Men." He spat out the word before continuing "Have got her so scared she is having trouble eating and sleeping. They have had her break down in a fit of tears right in front of me. That is not my Rosalita. Rosalita Pedrosa is the smart, sensible one, the one that is always in control." He sat down and buried his head in his hands but not before his friend saw his tears.

"She is hurt and being hurt mentally by these people and, and." He looked up out of his hands "I don't know how to protect or help her with that." After his admittance his head fell back into his hands with shame and they could see his body softly jerk with sobs.

"So that's what you want are help with." Clay stated solemnly and his friend nodded.

"But Rai" Kimiko said softly placing a hand on his shoulder comfortingly. "You are the best person to deal with that." He looked up to meet her blue eyes with his own green as she smiled reassuringly. "You said it yourself. You know her better then anyone else. How often do you convey thoughts to each other without words, how often do you know what each others feeling. Isn't the only reason you're in the show because you have such a connection with you're sister that you can tell when she is going to mess up." She told him trying to make him see sense.

"Kimiko, with persons emotions I am sometimes like a bull in a china shop" Raimundo retorted causing a small laugh from the others "Especially when I'm angry, and you have no idea how angry I am. Not with Ros of course, but with the people doing this too her. The thing is she can already tell I'm angry. I'm going to end up doing more bad then good."

"Ok Rai" Kimiko sighed "We'll try to help you in that area, but I think in the end it will be you that she will need more in that aspect." He nodded slightly "So do you have any idea who these people are or what's going on with Rosalita?"

"I first thought the attacks may be something to do with me being a Xiaolin dragon, but the more I think about it there is too much unanswered to be sure." He explained "I had the same idea with an explanation for Rosalita's fighting. I always thought her acrobatics talent may be something to do with my affliction to air but in the end I had to learn to fight. It didn't just come to me when things got bad." He said the last bit with a hint of jealousy before moving on "Plus we don't even know if her fighting and the attacks are linked."

"You have a point my friend." Omi decided to speak up "Maybe we should separate into researching different parts of this mystery."

"Yeah that's what I thought" Raimundo agreed with his small team mate "We will need some starting points though. I was wondering Dojo, has you or Master Fung ever heard of anything to do with this?" He addressed the small dragon that had been silent for the entire conversation.

"I have a few ideas but I will have to confer with master Fung." There scaled friend told him "Though I think you may be right that there is some connection with her acrobatics and your destiny."

"If that's true Rai" Kimiko teased "You perhaps shouldn't worry as much when she's doing her act."

"Hey its not that I don't think she can handle it." Raimundo defended "I'm just always like this when it comes to her."

"So you're over protective partner."

"No Clay, I am no-"

"But Rosalita told us so when you were frozen in anger."

"It was shock Omi, not anger"

"Yes it was Rai."

"No it wase-"

"Yes it was. You're my boyfriend and I know you." Kimiko told him "You even had a dark aura round you at the time."

As his friends distracted him away from the troublesome subject a person watched the in the shadows.

Chase hadn't meant to listen in on the conversation, but he had seen the unfortunate girls face as she came back from talking to her brother. It had troubled him in a way he had never known that she was upset. He had been toying with the idea of going to Raimundo, asking for an explanation, but felt his involvement wouldn't be welcomed by the young dragon of wind. Then he had come to this seemingly deserted area, tired of Jack and Ashley antics. Spicer had decided to learn to juggle, hitting everyone with the colourful balls in the process, while Katnappe was trying to eat the parrot ladies birds. Those two women surprisingly enough were getting along, though Ashley had certainly ruffled a few feathers.

He had been prepared to turn back as soon as he saw them but his fate for the neat half an hour was decided on the words he heard

"_-Rosalita's in trouble."_

The girl who, since he had met her this morning, had been in his mind all times whether in the back middle or forefront. He didn't know why he was so, so. He didn't know the word for it but it felt like she was important to him even though he barely knew her and had just met her. And hearing what Raimundo had just told his friends he found himself wanting to protect he as much as them.

But she was a girl who was related to a Xiaolin dragon and would obviously be on there side, but one who had treated him, Ashley and Jack the same way she treated her brothers friends. He confused her, was she just not concerned with what was happening in her brothers life because of what was going on in her own. Was it just because he had saved her life that she treated him like she did or would she treat the other Heylin's the same.

"Ok, where's the Shen Gong Wu."

Looks like he would find out soon enough.

**A/N: Look how concerned Rai is for his sister (mutters- not like my big brother) but will he need his friends help to protect her? Will Chase want to help as well?**

**How will Rosalita react to this 'mystery' Heylin? **

**Who is it? Wuya, Hannibal, Le Mime… Ok maybe not him seen as he can't talk. The Giant Cookie Monster. Not him ever he doesn't exist in this universe. Well it will be a Heylin**

**What's going on with Chase? Does he tolerate, admire, like or like like Rosalita? **

**Only this hyper Author knows.**

**So stay tuned for the seventh chapter of 'Neutral ground' which I will write once this is uploaded. Let's just say I'm very board and don't have much of a live at the moment because all the snow weave been having.**

**PLEASE click the green button and review. **


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The dragons glared at the appearance of their small enemy as he stood in front of them a demanding look on his face.

"I said, where the Shen Gong Wu" Hannibal Roy Bean demanded again as the dragons stood up from their positions on the ground.

"There isn't one Bean." Raimundo spoke up to, confronting the small villain.

"You cant fool me dragons" The enemy shouted bouncing up and down in agitation "I may have looked all over the city and found no sign of it but you being here is proof. So where is the Shen Gong Wu?"

"You couldn't find one because there is none." Kimiko pitched in annoyed.

"Why should I believe you? This could be an elaborate trick an-"

"There telling the truth Bean" Chase stepped out from his place in the shadows to interrupt his hated team mate.

"Wha – Chase?" Hannibal smirked in supposed triumph "Well that just proves my point doesn't it. Why would you be here if not for a Shen Gong Wu, and a powerful one at that?" He rubbed his hands together in glee and stared intently at the monks plus on immortal prince. "Now tell be were it is."

"We can't for the alleged Wu does not exist." Omi said "And if it did I would already have it in my possession." He gloated.

"What Omi says is true Hannibal." Chase told him "If there was one in Brazil the monks would have most likely got it already seen as they have the dragon to detect them."

"That doesn't explain why you're here." Hannibal Bean looked him up and down "Dressed like that especially."

"The clothes help me blend in, and as to why I'm here. I cam to makes sure seen as there is no Shen Gong Wu the Heylin side did nothing stupid." Chase answered honestly leaving out the part the only reason he was still at the actual circus was because her parents, once they had snapped out of there protective fury at a van, had insisted he stay for the show. Mrs Pedrosa could be very stubborn on some things. "That's all of it explained bean. Go home."

"I don't believe you." The villain sputtered "Tell me or I'll-"

"You'll what bean." Kimiko interrupted "Start a fight were there is to be no Xiaolin showdown and close to a populated place with civilians. That's breaking the agreement we made."

"The young dragon of fire has a point." Chase agreed with Kimiko "You would be going against your honour."

"Honour" The small villain spat "That is not in my vocabulary. It may do well for you Chase Young but I find it rather annoying." He told the much larger warrior "Anyway why should I care about my word. I'm evil!" He argued.

"Because" The calm voice cut through all noise in the clearing and head turned to the source of the noise. "People won't side with someone who's untrustworthy." Rosalita Pedrosa told him from the branch of a tree she was sitting on. "Plus" She continued throwing herself of the branch with a flip that landed her next to her brother. "You are more likely to be stabbed in the back." She placed a hand on her brother's shoulder and turned to face him ignoring Hannibal. "You need to get ready fro the show Rai."

She was already dressed for her first act, a black leotard with a green web design. She also had on skin tone tights and black ballet slippers for while she was outside, while her blonde hair had been tied back into a tight bun. Her makeup was done as well but was only simple so it would go with the other outfits she would ware that night.

"Yeah sure, I just need to tie things up here and then I'll go get changed." Raimundo told his sister a bit amused at how she had acted but mostly shocked and concerned for his sisters safety. This was Hannibal Bean.

"I'm fine with that." She turned her face back to the small adversary who himself was shocked at how she was reacting. The young acrobat nodded towards him at that moment. "Who's that?"

Raimundo turned her face away from the others to whisper his answer.

"So let me get this straight." She told him amused "One of you greatest enemies is a bean." She threw her arms up in disbelief on the last word. "God Rai, I thought you were kidding when you said that." She definitely sounded amused but more or less disbelieving. "Why didn't you just step on him?" She asked with a small laugh.

"Of course you can't ste-"

"Believe me I've tried." Chase decided to interrupt Bean answer her question "But he is very fast for one so small. It's been even worse since he got the Moby Morpher." She nodded in understanding before asking another question.

"Why is he here? I thought there wasn't any Shem Ging Wo."

"It's Shen Gong Wu, Ros" Raimundo corrected his sister before answering "And even though there isn't one here he thinks there is."

"Why does he think there's a Shen Gomg Du here then?"

"Because were here and it Shen Gong Wu." Raimundo told her again "Shen. Gong. Wu. Repeat with me." While he was trying get his sister to say it right they both failed to notice a very angry Hannibal Roy Bean hopping around the area.

"Shel Bong Pu."

"No! Shen Gong Wu"

"Phen Fong Gu"

"Shen Gong WU."

"Chem Lon-"

"IT'S SHEN GONG WU YOU STUPID GIRL."

"Charming isn't he?" Rosalita muttered but was loud enough for everyone to hear causing some laughter. The dragons plus chase were beginning to see what Rai meant when he said she didn't scare easy. Here she was standing in front one of her brothers greatest enemies, who she had heard countless stories about and knew how dangerous he was, yet she was not bothered even when the villain was jumping up and down steam coming out his ears.

"WHO ARE YOU ANYWAY?" He thundered at her.

"O you don't know. I'm-Mphhh" What ever she was going t say was cut of by her brother's hand being placed firmly over her mouth.

"She's no one." He answered for her "Just a mad circus acrobat just ignore- OUCH" The last word was form his sister the hand that stopped her talking. "Rosalita!"

"Disgusting!" She said to herself wiping her mouth on the back of her hand before meeting her brother's eyes. I one of there spectacular shows of twin telepathy he conveyed all his worries to his sisters "Merda" She swore sharply in Portuguese disregarding all of those worries. "I'm gathering the walking talking seed has some level of high intelligence. He's going to find out who I am you idiot, especially as I'm going to be living with you." She slapped him on the arm and seeing reluctance to agree kept at it till he caught her hand gently to stop her.

"Ok, ok. You have a point." He admitted grudgingly "I just don't want him to hurt you."

She muttered something like over protective but it was too low to hear before turning back to the bean.

"I'm Rosalita Pedrosa. This idiot's twin." Se introduced herself and turned back to her brother "See it wasn't that bad." She reassured him. At that point they heard a yell and saw, as Ros had dubbed him, the walking talking seed running towards the female half of the Pedrosa twins.

She didn't blink as he jumped at her, or when he produced a knife from somewhere. She didn't react at all to the parrot that swooped down and caught him in its talons. She did smirk though when the bird flew of towards where she knew an alleyway was and drop him.

"What am I going to do with you?" Raimundo sighed burying his face into his hands. "You are aware you just infuriated one of the most dangerous and evil persons in the universe?" He asked her disbelievingly.

"Not exactly. He's not a person, and that's not just the Bean thing I'm talking about." She told them causing confusion "Now one of most evil and dangerous forces in the universe I will accept." She smiled unbothered by all of it "Lets be going inside. You Rai need to get changed ready for our act, and you guys should get to your seats. We reserved some good ones for you to. Ashley and Jack will be meeting you there. That is if the cat girl doesn't get herself kicked out for chasing the birds." As she said that the parrot that had token away Hannibal landed on her waiting arm and she began to lead them inside.

The other shocked the heads bemused at the seemingly (if they didn't know better) fearless girl, not noticing the shadowy figures that had watched the whole exchange.

Only a short distance away, on top of a building overlooking a certain alleyway another group of shadowed persons looked down at a particular miniscule being pick himself out of a dumpster.

"So she isn't shocked? - Over" A quiet male voice spoke into a two way radio. His voce was deep and his accent gave him away as being English.

"_No sir. Quite calm actually. -Over_" The reply came back through clouded a bit by static but defiantly male, younger from the sound of it.

"Roger. Keep your eye on her and her companions. We'll report back at home base at 0200 hours. –Over" The first voice ordered.

"_Roger. 0200 hours at home base. -Over_" The second voice confirmed before the static silenced as the second receiver was switched off.

"What now?" A female voice asked her tone soft and gentle but a definite impatience in there.

"Now?" The first male said "Now we go get us a bean."

To say Hannibal Bean was annoyed would be an understatement.

A mere girl had just confronted him showing nothing but a coolness of character. No fear, no respect. She answered him with attitude and in everything else was just so calm. He was Hannibal Roy Bean dam it, and he should have been talked to with respect.

What made it worse was she was that air dragons twin sister, if it wasn't bad enough she was just so, so. Not a word to describe it.

And then, then when he was about to teach that insolent girl a lesson a bird caught and dropped in a dumpster. Whoever heard of a super villain being dumped in the trash?

It was entirely girls fault. That Rosalita Pedrosa.

Well that girl had made herself a very dangerous enemy who would get his revenge. Who did she think she was anyway? Calling him a walking talking seed indeed.

"Well to be far Hun, that's what you are." Hannibal had been so caught in his thoughts that he had noticed he had spoken those few lines aloud, or that he was no longer alone in the ally.

The person who had spoken was a leggy woman in her late twenties with her blonde hair in a bob. She was clothed completely in black all the way down to her gloved hands. The only skin he could see was that on her face, neck and the bit of cleavage not hidden by her tank or open jacket. She raised the sunglasses she was wearing to reveal ice blue eyes and she began to smile sadistically.

"As for whom she is…" The woman spoke again answering his first question "Well…" She trailed of as if looking for the right answer her mouth slightly opens her tongue touching her upper teeth.

"She's very special Mr. Bean" A voice with an English accent joined in, sounding slightly amused at his address to the villain "Not someone you want to mess with."

"She's not that strong." The woman rolled her eyes at the man who stood in the shadows, she obviously disliked the Pedrosa girl, or at least the attention she got.

"Yet Ica." The man told her disregarding the miniature villain for the moment "She not that powerful yet. With the right training she will be. Training we can give her." At this point he stepped out of the shadows revealing himself to be in his late twenties as well and well groomed. His skin was slightly tanned and he had deep brown eyes that seemed to look into your sole. His hair, brown like his eyes, was short and neatly slicked bag away from his eyes though there were a few rouge pieces that hung over his face along. He wore a black Armani suit with white crisp white shirt, no tie and black loafers.

"Hate to tell you this Stone but she hates us" Ica told him coldly "And you can't blame her. We creeped her out from the start. Stalking her, attacking her. One of the subordinates nearly killed her this morning."

"He was only going to scare her." The Stone argued. "And I'm sure her apprehension will ease once she joins us."

"Scare her to death more like it" Ica snapped at him "And let's not forget she's moving in with her brother. A Xiaolin Monk. Shell most likely get trained there and it won't be long till they figure out everything. What is with you boys when it comes to her, you all lose your heads. Me, Jetta and May are this close to-"

"Later Ica." He interrupted her "We'll continue this discussion later. Now we have something more important to handle." He gave a smirk which she soon matched with her own as she stabbed the spiked heal of her boot right in front of a fleeing Hannibal Bean.

"Don't go running of Hun" She sneered "You're coming with us."

"I'm not going anywh.-" His statement was cut short as a spurt of gas was fired at him from behind. As the particles touched his skin he felt himself slowing down and his legs beginning to crumble under him though he never actually breathed in the gas. He couldn't talk when he tried to and he found his vision swimming as he fell to the ground and it finally blacked out, but he could still hear. No he wasn't allowed to be full unconscious yet. He heard a feminine chuckle and he could just feel his body be mouthed onto something smooth as his sense of feeling dulled.

"This stuff is Great isn't it Mr Bean" The amused voice of the man they called Stone told him, though it was know muffled, as if through a wall of glass. On no! They hadn't dared or he would- His thoughts were cut of as the man continued "It's a gas which switches of all your senses except your hearing. That stops you from being knocked out you see."

"It enables us to torture you in a very special way." Isa's voice told him "As you'll soon realise." She told him, a hint of anticipation in her voice before she began to bark orders round her and his ears took in the noise of at least five people moving from spots around the alleyway. How had he not noticed any off this? He soon found him asking the same question he did before.

Who is Rosalita Pedrosa?

**A/N: Who indeed? **

**May I just say I loved Stone's name for Hannibal. Mr Bean. As soon as I wrote it I thought of the show I used to watch as a child. Actually it's my reason for making the man English.**

**Like I said I would, I have written this chapter straight after the last and I will tell you if I type anymore I'm going to not have any fingers anymore.**

**My tiredness as made me sane for once so I'm only going to say one more thing.**

**Click the Green Button and review PLEASE.**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

While Hannibal was in his plight the four he had been confronting were sitting down in there seats, which were of course the best in the whole tent.

Ros had been pleased to find out that in her absence Ashley had deterred from trying to eat the parrots, though if it was because of the objection my Anna or the plate of fish they had quickly given her was still to be discovered. Jack thankfully had also discovered he was not meant for juggling, but unfortunately seemed to be intent on finding a different circus performance to copy. Hopefully they would be able to discourage him.

Due to adding another act to the programme that hadn't been practised in a long time, Ros load had been cut down. Instead of her doing floor work, three group air performances and her solo, she was instead doing one piece of group work, her solo and her piece with her brother. To make things easier Rai had decided to just stick with her so as not to have to find her between acts. She wasn't going to be doing anything till halfway through when the acrobatics started, so for the mean while the twins were sitting with there friends. They were beginning to regret it as an impatient Omi had not stopped asking if it was starting yet.

The area was tow rows of four. The upper one had Ros from the far right, Chase, Ashley then Jack. Raimundo sat in front of his twin, Kimiko next to him, then Clay and finally Omi. Rai had been hesitant with his sister sitting next to Chase but due to the fact that it was the seat closest to the a passage that would get her to the rest of the tent unnoticed, left him no choice but to agree. That and the fact she was warning Chase when the birds were coming to stop Ashley trying to eat them. It hadn't stopped him from throwing sharp glances at the immortal Prince. He may trust him around Kimiko or any other girl, knowing he had enough honour to be trusted not to hurt them, but there was something in how he looked at Rosalita that he didn't like. At the moment he was trying to understand what she said about Bean not being a person.

"I told you I would explain later." She giggled at his impatience "The shows going to start in a few moments anyway and if I get in to this there is no guarantee I will stop." She giggled again smiling at the impatient man before she turned back to the front. Rai was just able to avoid her catching him eavesdropping or so he thought.

"Unless you want a repeat of June 17you'll avoid listening on my conversations dear brother." She whispered coldly in his ear, her hands on his shoulders applying enough pressure to make him uncomfortable. He nodded quickly. He did not want that day repeated. "Good." Before he knew it she was sat back on her seat properly just as the lights dimmed. Sometimes she really could freak him out.

"Is it start- Aghhh" Omi's question was cut of as glitter cannons went of right in front of him. Let's just say Rosalita and Raimundo put him there for a reason.

"Bem-vindos à magia de circo." The ringmaster shouted to the crowd. As Jacks annoying translator bot had been confiscated because it was too loud Rosalita quickly translated the announcement, saying it meant 'welcome to the circus of magic'. She carried on as the man introduced the first act, the symbol of most circuses, the clowns.

"Hey that's my trench coat." Jack noticed "And my goggles." As he went to stand up Chase pulled him down by the back of his T-shirt. If it hadn't been for the loud music the whole circus would have hared him already and the show didn't have to be disturbed by an upset red head.

"Jack, did you by any chance annoy the clowns when learning to juggle." Rosalita asked coolly but her green eyes twinkled with amusement as she gazed at the pasty white clown who was wearing jacks trench coat and goggles along with a bright red wig. He of course was playing the villain of the story.

"If you would call hitting them on the head with juggling ball's repeatedly, even when they asked him to stop, annoying, then yes he annoyed them." Ashley answered her in the same cool fashion, though she had a manic grin on her face. "A lot!" She confirmed before laughing at her friends plight as he saw his clown double being hit over the head by a saucepan, eyes wide and mouth agape.

"Well you caused as much trouble, probably more." He retorted angrily after snapping out of his previous state.

"O please. There not going to do anyth-."

"MEOW" Whatever Ashley had been going to say was cut of by the cute but badly tuned cats meow.

"O no they didn't" She growled leaning forward in her seat to have a better look.

"O yes they did." Jack laughed watching as a clown ran round on all fours, his costume complete with a yellow tail, ears and an exaggerated pair of black whiskers and cats nose.

The others the funny story of a team of supper hero clowns who faced the dastardly enemy that couldn't juggle and his partner in crime, a bumbling cat that couldn't walk without tripping. The two who had doubles in the ring just sat stock still seething over how the skit was going.

The highlight of it though was the unexpected intervention of an acrobat. Not surprisingly, even though she actually liked Ashley, Ana had not taken kindly to her trying to eat her parrots. Therefore she took to the skies in her feathered costume earlier then planned to be a temptation for the clown Kitty. Said kitty began to chase Anna as she went round the ring on her trapeze and in the process knocked over the base of the evil clowns doomsday device, which in truth was a giant pie. This caused said pie to wobble for a solid few moments till Kitty ran into evil clown causing them both to fall, the pie landing on top of them. The scene ended with a disgruntled Jack clone sitting up with the cat clone giving a piggy back its face twisted up in confusion.

"I have to admire how fast they came up with the script." Chase commented through his laughter, not truthfully at the skit but how the two Heylin's next to him could probably manage to end up like that. That and his other neighbour had an infectious laugh.

"Well Clowns can be easily offended." She laughed along with him "Well at least ours can be." She admitted with a shrug. "They basically get there own back like this, and normally we help if we can. Its better to have them on your good side like you have just seen." She smirked slightly before turning back to the ring, after a moment she called over to the two offended teens. "Don't worry. They forgive a person once they do one of these." She told them and they sighed in relief, having not liked how they were portrayed even though they could act similarly themselves. That was till Ros added an afterthought "Usually"

As the show went on though the twos embarrassment and offence diapered as the awe at the tricks pulled consumed them. For example the fire breather.

"Look Kimiko, he can control fire too." Omi had exclaimed as the short burst of flames burst fourth from the mans mouth. "What kind of magic is it?"

"Its not magic Omi." Kimiko told him seen as Rai and Ros had left to get ready for the female twins group piece. "It's a trick."

"Can I try?" The small boy asked.

"It's to dangerous partner." Clay answered "You'll end up crisped Omi."

"I could find a way." Jack mused

"NO" They shouted at him, unnoticed by the rest of the crowd thanks to the well timed loud music.

"You have more chance of being burned then Omi" Kimiko told him sternly before turning away from his pout to the show.

"Well if I you a fire resistant suit and-"

"Spicer if you ever try it I will take away all you're robots." Chase commanded his eyes not leaving the act.

"Chase" Jack whimpered with a strange glow in his eyes "You do care." After the evil boy genius was moved to tears.

"No I don't Spicer. I just don't want my lair burnt down." As Jack began to sulk, Chase and the others kept there eyes on the arena as the loud music stopped and the lights dimmed down till it was pitch black.

"Agora apresentação" The ringleader said quietly, green lights snapping to his form at the far edge of the ring by the entrance to the tent. "O melhor no mundo no que eles fazem. O destemido, o belo..." Chase translated for the others as the man trailed off 'Now presenting the best in the world at what they do. The fearless, the beautiful…'

"Bailarinos aéreos" The ringleader shouted and the lights switched off. The others were told he said air dancers and Chase turned back to the ring to see it was still black and silent. Just as whispers began to start an ethereal like sound came through the speakers covering up any sound that the falling fabric, Chase's superior eyesight had just picked out, made.

**(The music id Disturbia Rihanna. I was going to do something different to this, and then I heard the song and thought it was perfect. I will only explain certain parts of the routine; you can make up the rest. I'm not that good at thinking up this sort of thing.)**

As the song opened with a series of Dum's two things happened at once. One, Lights came on, directed at the four sheets of Aerial silk that had appeared in the dark. Two of which were black the other two green. The second thing was on each piece of silk a girl rolled down in a curled up position.

The two girls on green silk were dressed the same as Rosalita, one obviously being her. Unfortunately they both had black masks on and blonde hair. The other two were dressed the same except the green and black had been swapped in their costumes.

They began to move on the opening words of the song, first just changing position wrapped as they were before they began to move around on the silk. When the chorus began they changed to separating the silk into two and began to do more advance stuff like going upside down. As the chorus ended one girl of each colour silk climbed down while the other two stayed up there continuing there tricks. The unused silk was raised up as the girls on the floor moved to below there matching partners, grabbing then end of the sheets and ran with it to start the girls in the air on a spiral round the ring. While the girls on the floor danced, the ones in the air pulled tricks as they moved round the ring on the silk, slowly moving down as the two sheets wrapped round each other. Chase wasn't sure but he thought the one on the green silk winked at them as she passed. Maybe that's Ros. As the last chorus ended the two girls landed with the other two in the shape of a cube, the one matching them diagonal to them. At this point the light was solely on them like a spotlight but everything was quite.

Then ropes of black and green dropped down to the girl who had used that colour in silk. The acrobats caught them in there hands and began to climb elegantly up them, wrapping the rope round there limbs till they were halfway. Then the chorus of the song started again, the song obviously having been rewinded. As the girls started to do a routine on the silk more acrobats dressed similarly came out and began to perform tricks and dance routines on the floor. As the routine came to an end the girls rolled down the rope to land in a male acrobat arms like they were unconscious and were carried of stage.

As the applause started and the lights came back on the monks and two of the Heylin's cheered loudest of all. Chase on the overhand just smiled appreciatively. He enjoyed it just a much as the others but wasn't that much into showing emotion. He was also very impressed at the girl strength to pull off those tricks and it seemed, though it had been hard to tell, the one he had guessed was Ros had pulled of the tricks the best. He guessed he would be able to judge her better in her solo when it was just her up there. An evil part of his mind, well part that was eviler then the rest of it, was whispering it was for another reason. That it was because he hadn't got a good look at 'her' before.

The next routine was, how you would say, a lot cheerier, compared to the group piece before it. It was Ana's turn in the air and her routine was to 'The Tiki Tiki Room'. It involved a lot of shimming and flying through the air on a trapeze. She also used one of the ropes like the acrobats before and did a lot of floor work. Of course though what made her act special was when the parrots were released, something Rosalita had got changed and back to the group quick enough to warn Chase about. The routine couldn't help but a smile on your face, with the eccentric acrobat that had a big grin from the start. Ana Lovetta was a lot different to the ones before that had very blank facial expressions, or at least very soft ones.

The group was defiantly amazed by what the acrobats could do once in the air, and Raimundo had definite pleasure in rubbing the fact he hadn't just been gloating that morning to Kimiko. Eventually though it was nearing the end and it was announced there was only three more acts, the first one being the twins pieces. By now they had disappeared to get ready but Omi through due to him annoying the two of them had got a clue to what they were doing. Yin and Yang.

This certainly tied in with the outfits they had been wearing before they left. Rai had got of wearing tights and were instead wearing white trousers which had an elastic waist to keep them up along with an open white shirt. The appearance of his chest was enough to appease Kimiko for not being able to get a certain view of another pat of her boyfriend's anatomy. He was of course Yang. This made Rosalita of course Yin. She had a black sports bra on, much to her brother displeasure as he thought it showed to much skin and black trousers similar to her brothers. As soon as she calmed her brother down about the costumes Omi had asked why Rosalita, with the lighter hair was playing evil. He nearly said something sexist before Ros had shut him up saying her hair played a special part on its own and Yin wasn't evil. She then muttered something along the lines of that a Chinese monk should know the meaning behind Yin Yang.

As the act was introduced Chase translated for the rest "Now ladies and gentleman we will give you a special treat. Years ago we had a special act that can be found nowhere else. The act involves two siblings born in the circus and who lived in the circus till one moved on to reach a higher calling. Now his sister will follow him, but not before they put on that special act once more. I gladly present are youngest acrobats, the ones born for the air…" The ringleader paused for dramatic effect.

"Gêmeos de ar" Twins of air.

The lights dimmed on those words and eventually a spotlight was the only light available. Slowly a circle was lowered from the top of the tent. Inside in an almost perfect copy of the Yin Yang symbol were the twins. Rai clearly had the easiest job as he wasn't upside down. His arms were wrapped above his head on the metal ring. He had his top half bent inwards with the little contortion he could do, his brown hair becoming the black dot for Yang. His sister was contortioned more then him, to smoothen up the shape, but she clung to the hoop in a similar way and her hair was acting like the white dot in Yin. To make it look better for the time being she had a black shirt on that would cover her bare skin, but that would be soon discarded along with her brothers.

A slow tune started up once everyone had gotten a good look at the twins shape, and the two began to remove themselves from the shape they held. They both moved so they were sitting mirror to each other. One leg on the ring, the other hanging off. An arm on the knee that was bent the other one holding the hoop from above the head. This was harder for Ros who had to actually flip her self over to get into this position. The next position they moved in to as the ring neared the ground was climbing completely out of the ring to stand on the outside, Rai on the left, Ros on the right. They each reached out there left hand as they neared the floor to touch and raised there right leg up behind them, so they were only attached to the ring by one hand and one foot each.

Finally they touched the ground and stayed like that for a moment before quickly there position changed as the music sped up. Rosalita stood spread eagle in the hoop and Rai was completely out of it. He took a hold of the left edge and gave a running start to get the hoop to spin round the arena. Rosalita flew round the ring calmly as if she hasn't moved and as she passed Rai for the second time he jumped and took hold of the bottom of the hoop taking a position exactly like hers. As they spun round the ring they changed positions such as both of them holding on to the bottom of the hoop. This carried on till the music slowed again and the hoop came to rest on the ground but before that the twins had left at some point.

Then the lights switched to opposite ends of the ring, each on a twin, there shirts now discarded, as they jumped of there platforms on a trapeze. They pulled a few tricks like Rai catching Ros when she flipped of hers and stuff like that but the final trick of this segment was what caught peoples eye. They were opposite sides again and the both leaped in sync but as they passed each other in the middle they passed in such a way, they once again resembled the Yin Yang shape. They repeated this a few times for those that had missed it before the silk came down.

This time the silk was in black and white, the twin's taking the opposite colour to what they were wearing. They basically flew across the crowd for the most of the segment pulling of tricks, of course due to her having more experience Ros did more advance stuff, but again like with the group piece the two sheets of silk began to wrap round each other. The twins stopped as the silk was completely twisted a hairs breath away from each other as the music slowed again. Though it seemed as if it was the end, it wasn't and they each began to climb the twisted silk, helping each other as they went. The way they did it was so synchronised, and to those who new them personally, so like them. Rai went first to check for 'danger' and would, if needed use his strength, to help his sister. Ros would seem to direct him, pointing to certain areas to place his foot. They ended half way up the silk, there arms touching as if they were hugging thought the silk and to those with good eyesight (Chase) they had there eyes closed.

As the music ended and the audience applauded, the twins quickly climbed down to take there bow holding hands and then they ran of together. Not before bowing a few more times. They even pulled a few tricks like Ros flipping over her brother's arms or them pulling of cartwheels and flips in synch.

"Good aren't they." The group in the best seats were shocked out of there stupor by the arrival of Ana who had taken Rai's seat, being no that comfortable round Chase. "That routine is very symbolic to them, we won't let anyone lese do it." She smiled softly to her self "For example, and I only tell you this because they wont, in there sonogram picture there in the Yin Yang shape. **(I don't know if that's possible but I thought it would be good.) **Also the black and white represents how sometimes there like chalk and cheese. The climbing style at the end is also how they climbed as kids." She turned to face the others a serious look on her face that looked very misplaced with her multi coloured hair. "My cousins put a lot of them into that routine, that's why it special. Do you understand?" They nodded as a reply "Good, because that info will help you understand how those two works." Her face then morphed back into her usual happy go lucky expression "I better get down there for the final piece." She turned to leave.

"Wait!" Ashley stopped her making her turn round.

"What is it Ash, you eat one of my parrots." Ana seemed to be joking but there was defiantly a hint of seriousness in her words.

"No, no" The cat girl denied rapidly "Chase stopped me." She then cringed realising she maybe shouldn't have said that out loud. "It's just I thought there were two more acts to go."

"Well there is." Ana told her and quickly continued seeing the confusion "Were doing are usual grand finale and then Ros's send off, seen as this is her last show. Toddles!" She ran off quickly and was soon seen on the main ring warming up the crowd in her usual joyful manor.

The grand finale was basically all the acts performing ones more time ring but eventually in ended and all the silk was taken down from the rafters and all the performers were stood solemnly facing the ringmaster. As the man opened his mouth Chase began translating.

"Ladies and Gentle man by now we would have usually ended our show but tonight is no normal night. As I told you before, tonight is the last time we will see one girl, a very special girl."

"She has bee here since birth and all the performers here see her as part of the family, and as all families should we must let her go to find her own path. Without much further ado I present." He paused again for dramatic effect before shouting. "A princesa aérea" The princess of air.

Chase shook his head slightly as the ringmaster ducked out to the edge of the ring along with the others. It was so obvious to be honest for Rosalita had the same green eyes as the girl he had seen on the poster this morning yet he hadn't even considered they were the same person. He chuckled slightly and settled back to watch the performance.

Very light blue aerial silk came over from the side, a person rapped in at the top.

**(I am tired of writing routines and I found the perfect one on you tube which I have put on my profile. The only thing's I'm changing is then ending from when the woman lands on the floor and starts spinning with the silk, and what the other performers are doing on the ground. Also Rosalita will actually look like she has clothes on [Rai wouldn't let her up there if she didn't] and shell be wearing a mask.)**

Rosalita wore a white leotard with sequins sown in it and a mask of light blue. She touched the ground. She showed many emotions in the routine. Serenity at being in the air, a crazed enjoyment, happiness and lastly depression as she landed the silk wrapped round her limbs. It seemed like the end of routine but suddenly she tensed her body rigged. She threw of the mask and faced the ground her loose blonde hair covering her face.

The ringmaster began to talk solemnly and chase began translating.

"She has been with us since birth." Rosalita took hold of the silk gently in her hands, caressing it almost as her hands moved to grip the edge.

"She is part of our family." She crouched her arms spread out ever side with the silk.

"She stands by our side, and we stand by hers." She began to spin, smoothly standing up as she did. Other performers came in from the side, standing a distance away almost in respect.

"We will never forget her, and never will you." Chase translated the ringmaster's stern words as Rosalita's spinning got faster.

"I give you our Princesa aérea final flight." the ringmaster shouted her title as she broke from her spinning sharply to run to the side the silk moving her smoothly up other the performers who didn't even have to duck it was so well timed. She flew round the ring, the only tricks being a change in her form at intervals, her blonde hair following her like a halo. She truly looked beautiful, her green eyes a blaze with happiness and her skin rosy and flushed with a smile on her face that could rival any of Ana's yet looked not at all cheesy.

Eventually the silk stopped in the centre and she began to pull her self up. He grin was now replaced with a serene smile as she looked to the rafters. Everything was silent till she was out of sight.

The last of the performers entered the ring still leaving a wide birth round the silks end. This remained for the nest few moments till the ringmaster spoke again.

A spotlight suddenly switched on to the far right hand corner of the tent, and at the dame time more silk dropped down to join the other. The spotlight went up to the rafters were a long platform resided, a bit like a diving board. One end went to the centre of the ring, just above were the sheets of silk were. The other side at the edge of the tent, were the spot light was, stood Rosalita.

"Ladies and Gentleman." Chase translated and those with keen eyesight (Chase) could see her tense "I give you…" A running stance showed itself and the crown held its breath.

"ROSALITA PEDROSA" I was a good thing it didn't need to be translated as Chase didn't think he would have been able to as his breath was taken in fear, something that hadn't happened in centuries and for a mere mortal no less, as Rosalita ran to the edge of the platform and jumped.

She had free fallen a small bit before she quickly began twisting and turning as she passed the silk. Even though it was so frightening Chase, one of the only ones capable of it, saw the beauty in her movements and was impressed with the speed she executed them with.

When she stopped she was facing up her back only a meter of the floor. Her limbs were wrapped up at the random points of her body in the silk so her body could be curved so her face was towards the crowds and gently a serene smile spread across her face.

That's when the cheers started. The stamping of feat and the clapping of hands filled the tent along with screams of excitement, joy, wonder, surprise and relief.

Other acrobats came and began to spin her slowly around so she could see all the cheering fans. As she returned to were the circle began she twisted her body again so she was sitting up right, the top of her thighs and waist being the only ones wrapped in the silk and her ands holding the two parts of the one sheet she used as the others were pulled up to the rafters.

As she waved to her fans a solitary tear rolled down her cheek, but I'll let you in on a secret. It's not because she's leaving and it's not for joy. It was the same tears that she had cried earlier that very day and the same tears that were absorbed by her brother's shirt.

It was fear, but at what?

**A/N: Looooooooooooooong Chapter. I know this kind of chapter won't apply to everyone but I think it is long enough already and the talk of these tricks is making ME tired and the only things moving are my hands. Actually I think my poor fingertips are going to revolt.**

**I do promise more mystery, more intrigue nest time though.**

**Maybe you will discover what that tear of fear -hey that rhymes (giggle) - was all about, or maybe what happened to Hannibal Bean.**

**All will be discovered in the next chapter so keep reading/**

**Click the little green button and review (Please I need proof for my fingers it was worth it. They already have the pitchforks.)**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I do not own Xiaolin Showdown, it's the property of whoever owns it.**

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Chapter 9

As the show finished the non acrobatic monks and the Heylin's were led backstage to where the performers were converging. The area was a large dressing room of sorts that spread outside through the large entrance at the side. In the centre of this area most of the performers had gathered and were congratulating and clapping Rosalita on the back, her twin though was not among them. With a bit of looking though they were able to find him sitting in the corner.

His friends could not help but be concerned for a moment. His skin was deathly white with a tinge of green and his hands were clenched so tight you could see his veins.

"Rai sweetie, are you ok." Kimiko asked gently sitting down next to him cautiously. He barely acknowledged her presence before he nodded stiffly, his wide eyes on his sister.

"Raimundo looks like he has heard the post." Omi observed mucking up a saying once more.

"It's 'like he has seen a ghost' partner." Clay corrected for him seen as Rai obviously couldn't in his state.

"That too." The small yellow boy replied obliviously as Clay shook his head.

"He may as well have." A deep laugh came from behind and they turned to see one of the Rai's older brothers, Alberto if they remembered right. "I have to admit our little rose bud can look like one when she goes around the ring on that silk. Its like she's weightless and god knows that's close to being true. Vovó makes sure she gets big food portions." He told his brother and then turned to the others to explain. "You see she has a habit of forgetting meals and burning of too may calories during the day. Don't know how she will survive without the woman here force feeding her." He laughed some more before looking seriously at the monks for a moment "So you three and that Master Funk better make sure she eats properly, or I'll be coming to sort you out." He flexed his muscles at this and Kimiko and Clay quickly nodded there heads before Omi could open his mouth. He would be of course easy to take down seen as they were Xiaolin monks and all, but something about beating up there best friends brother just because he was being protective just seemed very wrong.

"Don't worry Al. I'll make sure she eats enough." Rai reassured his brother after snapping out of his trance, probably from protective talk of Ros, and stood up to nearly fall flat on his face. Fortunately his brother caught him.

"You stay down for know irmão. I had to carry him down from the rafters you know, after Ros was finished." He shook his head chuckling "It's not his fault really. He's never seen that stunt before and because the cable on the harness was really hard to see it did look like she had done a suicide jump. You should have seen him; he was paling even before she started the run up." He started to all out laugh and so did the circus performers near him that could hear. The visitors did laugh slightly but didn't find it as humorous as the performers; they had thought she was going to kill herself as well.

Chase didn't laugh at all; he was too submerged in thoughts of Rosalita. Not the kind of thoughts you may immediately go to from what you have heard him think so far. He was thinking about the last trick and the tear he had picked up as she had finished. Ok these thoughts 'were' mostly based on his unconventional concern he felt for the blonde's well being, but it wasn't in anyway because of an attraction. No way.

He'll admit that during her performance he was spellbound by the vision of loveliness that she was, but so were many others. Even Omi, as clueless as he was in such matters, had watched transfixed on the angel that flew on white silk, though he didn't think angel described her right. Just something in her made it a wrong fit. Not like those leotards that were skin tight and defined every curve. He still remembered when he had seen her confront Bean. Her skin, which was curiously lighter then her brothers, had been defined by the black and green costume and as she sat on that branch perfectly balanced her legs had glowed in the afternoon sun. Her long beautiful legs. He could just imagine them wrapped round him right now as he-

"_No do not think that_"

He reprimanded himself. So he was attracted to her but still that is not why he was thinking of her last trick.

She had fallen too easily.

He looked round the area looking for the girl and saw her talking to her mother, telling her she was going to see if she had dropped a hair clip up in the rafters. He nearly didn't catch the lie. He waited for a few moments after she left before going outside, in the opposite direction to her. This of course was part of his plan, and what was teleportation to the immortal prince of darkness.

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Rosalita climbed the final rung of the ladder worriedly. Something had gone wrong in her final trick, the fall had been to smooth. No tug or anything. She felt she knew what had happened but did not want to admit it to herself or get anyone in trouble if she was right. She had to find out though, which was why even though she would rather watch her mother chase the Russian fire breather around the camp for offering vodka to Rai, she was up in the rafters checking her harness.

More precisely her safety line began.

She reached up and was able to grab part of the cable and ran her fingers down it till she found then end, the end that should have been many meters longer and still connected to her harness.

"It's been cut." The deep voice shocked her and she looked over her shoulder to see Chase Young only a couple of meters way.

"How…" She stuttered slightly before she regained her senses from the small shock "How did you get up here?"

"Now I thought your twin told you all about us." Chase told her, astonishingly there was a hint of teasing in his voice "You should realise I am the immortal prince of-"

"Darkness, I know." Ros giggled slightly not realising she had interrupted another one of her brothers greatest foes who, surprisingly, didn't really care. "You teleported up here right?" He nodded simply "Dammit that must be a fast way to travel." She muttered to herself but knew Chase could hear her. "You by any chance give lifts?" She asked brightly.

His face remained blank with no emotion as he responded to her question with one of his own. "You are aware you just asked me, Chase Young the Immortal Prince of Darkness and one of your brother's worst enemies, if I would give you a lift." He deadpanned and while anyone else would be scared Rosalita Pedrosa just calmly met his Topaz eyes with her emerald green.

"Yeah!" She admitted slightly sheepish "But to be fair I have been on my feet all day. Morning jogs, stretches, climbing these damm ladders, nearly ran over by a van, jumping on the idiot, confronting a walking talking seed, running errands…" She listed her voice getting more erratic and agitated as she went while Chase looked on with an amusement he would never admit to. "I'm exhausted." She exclaimed throwing her hands up in the air "So please excuse me for referring to you like you're a, a…a.. um" She started to scratch her head as she searched for the word muttering to herself, completely forgetting about her rant. "It's a mode of public transport. I hear in New York there bad for keeping to the speed limit." She tried to explain.

"A Taxi?"

"Yes a taxi. I am sorry for referring to you like you're a taxi." She finished her apology and bowed slightly turning back to Chase as she had faced away during her rant.

"You really have no fear do you?" Chase interrupted the silence that had settled over them for the previous few minuets. He had a small grin on his face that showed he was partially amused but there still was a lot of questioning in it.

Rosalita snorted in amusement before answering "If we didn't have fear Chase we would not be able to survive." For some reason he didn't expect that but at the same time he did. He still remembered what she had said about Bean and how it seemed cryptic yet profound. "Fear keeps us on our toes" She explained "Keeps us wary and on our guard for danger. If we have no fear we would be careless. Your question should have been, Mr Young, the one you have wanted to ask all day. Am I afraid of you and the rest of the Heylin side? "

He met her stare blankly before he realised she was gesturing him to actually ask her. With a roll of the eyes he said "Are you afraid of me and the rest of the Heylin side?"

"I'm not afraid of you, Jack or Ashley" She said bluntly leaving no room for arguing. "I won't be afraid of the rest till I meet them."

"Explain?"

"Why should I be?" She asked rhetorically with a shrug of the shoulders "I'm not your enemy, my brother is. I'm not interested in the Shen Gomg Du-"

"Shen Gong Wu"

"You know I started saying it wrong to annoy my brother and now I can't stop." She shook her head "As I was saying, I'm going to stay neutral in this."

"Neutral, why are you going to do that? You don't have any links to the Heylin side." Chase asked confused.

"And what are you? A cantaloupe." She asked sarcastically.

"Again are you aware you just referred to me as melon" He asked emotionlessly but inside he was still amused.

"I also call Omi a Lemon" She stated brightly before becoming serious again "The thing is I do have a link to your side now. You saved my life and that's something you don't forget. Besides I decided to me neutral before today anyway." She shrugged before meeting his eyes to explain "The thing is I'm kinda dark, or at least not as light as my bother and his friends, and Rai has had his fair share of wrongs. Pick pocketing, vandalism. It wasn't serious of course, mostly loose change from dad or a wall set for demolition and he's never been caught and charged, and he stopped long ago." She explained. "But with me, it's kinda gone on longer. I don't do anything maliciously but…" She trailed off nervously but seeing Chases intrigued expression continued "I've messed up classrooms, storage rooms and the principles office. I've set fire to dumpsters before and thrown things I it. I once stole back mine, as well as other students, money back of the school bully, because I will get my own back…" She trailed of again before she continued "I like mayhem, I like causing trouble. I never do anything to harm people through and if I did, which hasn't happened yet, I'll own up."

"The fact is I may not be evil but I am bad." She laughed slightly "You'll see that soon enough" She then became serious again "You see bad appeals to me and however much I seem like a god girl, I'm not and I don't hide the fact. But I can't be against my brother though because… Well he's my brother. He's always had my back, and I will have his as best as I can." She stated firmly "There's a lot more to all this and in the end it's really complicated, but the fact is I just can't choose a side." She smiled weakly at him. "I'm weird aren't I?"

"No, your complicated" He told her bluntly, he paused a moment for continuing "It makes sense though." He replied finally after a moment of silence "I have read about something that ties in with this and you being a twin actually. I'll explain it to you some day." He told her "But even though you have decided to not choose a side, what makes you think I won't kidnap or hurt you to get to the dragons?" She met his eyes with her own yet again and he saw a sharp anger in them mixed with surprising trust.

"You said yourself Chase, my twin has told me all about the whole situation with the Shen Gong Wu," She turned away for the moment and gave a quick celebration for saying the right words before returning to her reply and being serious "And especially after you made the agreement he has made it clear you are an honourable person and a person with honour does NOT attack someone who is defenceless. They don't use cowardly tactics and try to keep a fight between the fighters. You know I am not part of this fight, you even agreed earlier to not hurt me on purpose, so why should I think you will?" He stayed silent, a quite acceptance. "I'm not scared of you Chase; you have done nothing to merit it." She turned back to the cable to examine again while Chase processed what she said.

"But what about Bean?" He suddenly asked "You have heard about him and all he can do but you say you're not scared of him." He shocked himself by the amount of concern he put into his demand, and as he thought back to the Beans attack on her he was equally shocked by the amount of anger he felt. He even recalled that he had been preparing to get Ros out the way, or at least destroy bean for going at her.

"I was scared." Rosalita admitted quietly breaking him out of his thoughts, "Never said I wasn't." She looked over her shoulder not waiting for a questioning look or anything before she continued "I told you I wouldn't be afraid of you, Jack, Ashley or the Heylin's I haven't met. I never mentioned Bean." She sighed and ruffled her blonde hair "I'm good at hiding my emotions Chase, it's the reason no one realised this had happened." She indicated the cable before looking at him accusingly "Well except you it seems. You see, I don't think you're up here to for the great view."

"Do you think it was those people you told your brother about?" He asked ignoring her last comment.

"How did you know-"

"I overheard them."

"Eavesdropping more like" She muttered to herself "And I didn't at first. I thought this had snapped or broken naturally and I came up here to hide the evidence, I don't want anyone to be fired." She told him compassion evident in her voice, compassion Chase new he wouldn't have been able to bestow if the accident had been the work of incompetent workers. She quickly returned to the conversation though.

"I know it was fine when I jumped of here." She explained "Rai checked it himself; he wouldn't let me hurt myself you know." She paused for a moment a fond smile on her face that had a hint of annoyance and muttered something about overprotective brothers before returning to the conversation. "That means it broke when I was falling which would be very hard to do, but..." She looked into his eyes and any amusement that she had possessed in her own till then had been replaced by fear and worry. "You sure its been cut?" Her voice broke a bit from her fear and she looked she might cry at any moment He nodded disturbed at the transformation she had taken. She was no longer the confident, fearless woman he had been called a taxi by, but a weak scared girl. "But if anyone could do this it's them." She finished of what she had been saying previous to the question.

"You're afraid of them aren't you?" He asked her solemnly.

"Their one of my two greatest fears."

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**A/N: Ok I know its been ages but I kinda had writers block, or gap to be more exact. (Explanation on profile.)**

**The sad thing is I began writing most of this not long after I uploaded the last chapter, and I haven't really added or changed much.**

**Anyway, I apologise for the lateness of this and hope you forgive me. Also I hope you also forgive me if the whole Ros's bad but not evil and does all those things yada yada… makes sense. I'll put an explanation in at the start of Ch10.**

**That might be a while in coming though. I have exams coming up and will obviously have to study. Also I might get more writers gap. Hopefully you'll keep your eyes out for**

**-drum roll please-**

**CH 10 OF NEUTRAL GROUND**

**Click the Gre… Oh they've changed it. Ok well… **

**Click the little speech bubble and review PLEASE**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I do not own Xiaolin Showdown, it's the property of whoever owns it.**

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**The Dark but not evil Rosalita explanation**

**Ok first things first. Rosalita is NOT evil. Memorise this sentence, repeat it till you have it straight in your head. Rosalita is NOT evil**

**Ok basically what I mean by calling Rosalita dark is that she has a different way about going about things but to the same effect. For example if someone steals your lunch money you might go to the teacher. Rosalita steals it back. She could beat the bully up as well but that isn't her nature. She DOSN'T want to hurt people. She has a list of morals that she sticks too and is generally a good person, and compared to people like Chase she actually constitutes as light.**

**Fir lack of better term, she's a good bad girl and is overall dark. The one think you got to gte with me is I believe strongly in ying and yang. Light and dark coexist and we cant have one without the over, and just because your one you aren't exactly evil. **

**So basically Rosalita is a bit more dog eat dog, means to an end sort of person to an extent but has lines that its so certain she wont cross there mountains.**

**I'm sorry if this doesn't make much sense but hopefully this will help you understand her character more, and I must tell you it helped me as well. Just remember**

**ROSALITA IS NOT EVIL**

**Ok**

**Enjoy xxx**

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Chapter 10 

As she confessed to the dark prince, said one of two greatest fears was having a meeting.

They were crowded round a meeting table, a good number of them being male. A man with black hair and a neatly trimmed beard was standing up, giving a report of some sort.

" The subject seemed very angry at the girl." He told them in monotone "Taking into account what had just happen it doesn't surprise us. We have been able to understand from him that the Xiaolin Monks have reached an agreement with the Heylin side as not to fight in front of innocent bystanders, this will most likely include the girl. We have also been able to procure a list of who has what Shen Gong Wu. If another is found they will have to leave the girl alone to get it so she is not put in danger."

"Do you feel they could be any use to us?" Another male asked.

"I don't think so, but we should keep an eye on it just in case." The man reported "We may be able to use them for barging and such."

"Do you think she'll me in danger living with them?" One of the few women asked from where she sat next to Ica.

"Possible May." Stone told her indifferently "But I'm sure her brother will stop her getting to badly hurt, as will the other monks. Besides that could end up in our favour, more of her talents may be unlocked."

"What she needs is training." Ica protested. "Not to be in fights."

"I'm sure she'll get the training with the monks" Stone said patronisingly "Besides she will do better with hands on experience." He said smirking on the last couple of words, his expression echoed by the other males.

The woman scowled though as Ica tried again. "Yes practical experience is good but we're talking about putting her life in danger. She has no real training Stone; you're going to end up seriously injuring her with your attacks. And let's not mention the accidents."

"It conditions her to be afraid of everyday life and make her more agreeable to the training and protection we can give her. Through having fewer accidents happen when we have more contact with her she will begin to connect us with safety and therefore will begin to trust us and become applicable to our ideas." One man said scientifically.

"But that hasn't happened." Ica nearly screamed "She's terrified of us."

"Extremely" May agreed "I heard the report the dragon of fire gave his companions. She thinks were trying to kill her, among other things." She cast a dark look at the males.

"Yes! Honestly what was that this morning and this evening for that matter? We want her alive."Ica exclaimed.

"The intention was to put her in hospital so she couldn't leave..." The man at the front tried to explain.

"You would have more likely killed her." May nearly screamed "Honestly a van." She stared incredulously at one of the men "And cutting her safety wire." She did the same with another "That drop would have killed her."

"Well yes we should have used a bit more sense." Stone tried to placate "But the fall could only be good training for her, and I'm sure she doesn't know it us, probably just thought the wire snapped..."

"_...at first. I thought this had snapped or broken naturally and I came up here to hide the evidence, I don't want anyone to be fired... I know it was fine when I jumped of here Rai checked it himself; he wouldn't let me hurt myself you know. That means it broke when I was falling which would be very hard to do, but... You sure it's been cut?... But if anyone could do this it's them._"

The woman shut the tape recorder of with a silent click as she entered the room walking to lean on a bench at the side.

"Jetta." Stone greeted apprehensively "Was that..."

"Conversation with Chase Young, five minutes ago." The woman said singularly and emotionlessly.

"So she knows it was us." He said "Not that much of a problem."

"She's terrified." Ica shouted her chair crashing to the floor as she stood up

"No she isn't." Stone snapped losing his cool as he echoed her actions without knocking his own seat other "She is fine, Rosalita just needs guidance, harsh guidance or she'll not reach the point we need her to and the only way to do that is making her a little scared, which we have done. She is not terrified of us." He glared harshly over at Ica who glared right back, May doing the same. The room was in silent till...

There was a click and a short wiring sound before there was another. Heads turned towards Jetta who held her tape recorder in hand before with a slim finger she pressed play.

"_You're afraid of them aren't you?" _A deep male voice asked before there was a pause

"_Their one of my two greatest fears." _

The three woman looked accusingly at stone who under their glares sank defeated back onto his chair. Without breaking there stares Jetta walked towards the table, picking up Ica's chair as she did and beckoning the other female to sit. Once done she stood between the woman and leaned both hands on the table, leaning in towards Stone.

"I think you need a wakeup call Stone." She said expressionlessly "Rosalitta Pedrosa is a very important person. She is not a weapon." She said harshly, her words cutting through not only the male she directed her words at but the others as well. "She needs protection. She needs training and she needs to trust us. Yet you males don't see that." She sneered "You attack her, you hurt her and you endanger her. You have made her loose trust in us when we are what she should be turning to when she is in trouble, instead you cause the trouble and chase her away. And throughout this you have your own agenda. You see her as a means to riches, your own personal thief and assassin, but more so you see a seventeen year old girl as a slave for your sick pleasure, all of you think that." She said to the room as a whole, disgust evident in her voice. "But you have it all wrong." She told Stone harshly "She is more than a slave, more than a thief and more than an assassin. She is not you anything Stone, but she is ours." She told him bitterly "She is the one me and my sisters have been waiting for. Our leader." She snapped "And most importantly our sister. You jumped on a bandwagon we never created, pleading allegiance and the only reason we stay with you is due to the help you give us in our other endeavours. So listen up,.." The woman ordered to the room at a whole "From now on any operation involving our lady is to go through one of us. If we find out our orders have been ignored you will face our wrath."

"Now listen here." Stone interrupted reaching threateningly towards Jetta. Before he could lay a hand on her though he was up against the wall a knife through either sleeve of his expensive jacket and Ica and May on either side. No one had seen them move but they were suddenly aware of the imposing presence of the three female fatales.

"You're the one who should listen stone." The woman said her voice still expressionless and still deeply cutting. "We are the chosen. The reincarnations of three of the five lieutenants." She walked around the table towards the man "We are more powerful then you can imagine and we act only to protect our lady. You shouldn't risk it." She sneered in his face before pulling him from the bored.

"Meeting adjourned" May shouted from where she stood, spinning a knife threateningly in her hand causing the room to swiftly empty.

The three women sat for a moment in contemplative silence. "Do you think they will do as we say?" Ica asked.

"I don't know." Jetta replied, finally showing some emotion as she tiredly unravelled her black hair from the bun on the back of her head. "They have their own agenda with the girl and they won't see going along with us as increasing their changes of success. They more likely think it will lead to them failing."

"So all we can hold over them is fear." Ica sated with a groan "And that most likely won't last long. They do outnumber us significantly and they will see that as an advantage. Before we know it they would have possibly killed her."

"So how are we going to keep them in line?" May said worriedly.

"I'm afraid to say we'll need to give some leave way." Jetta sighed "I also hate to admit but the repeat attacks are good for training her. They just take it too far."

"So what are you saying?" Ica asked "That we should let them attack her?"

"That could work though." May said "It would make them think they still have some control but also gives Rosalita more experience, and even if they ignore any orders we give not to go all out the monks will be there to protect her."

"What of the monks aren't there and they get the upper hand." Ica said worriedly. "You said yourself you know what they think of her. I don't want them to do that to her, she's too young."

"Maybe if we gave more leniency in other areas." Jetta said quietly "I don't know about you two but I'd rather they did that to me than her." The girls silently nodded in agreement. "Anyway" Jeta continued her voice louder. "It may not be necessary. I was thinking we screen the attackers and how and when it happens. Gradually increases the seriousness of it. That way she's actually learning and her times get quicker."

"That could work." Ica said "And if she gradually gets better the chance of her being over powered get lessened."

Jetta nodded "Hopefully it won't get to that point as she will be living with her brother having his protection and training."

"What do you think about that anyway?" Ica asked "Her moving away?"

"Well I rather she be with actual fighters that circus people." May said leaning back in her chair "Besides we have much more allies in the east, and when I say that I mean our allies not those jokers that own the building."

"Yes and Kate's in the area. She might be able to establish a relationship." Jetta said "But overall I think the move will do her good. She is under so much stress here it's going to make her ill."

Ica nodded "And there will be more distance between her and these guys. I bet they wished they listened to us about not putting all their eggs in one basket, or city for that matter." She joked "They won't be able to move over there for a while and therefore have less overview of the missions."

"Which will make are control of things easier." May added "By the time they can successfully get there we will either have built a decent relationship with her or they will already have figured stuff out."

"That's pretty likely with Chase Young around" Jetta said "And from the sound of things he has a soft spot for her." She shook the tape recorder in the air with a smirk.

Ica matched her smile while May giggled "Some things never change." The blonde said shaking her head "Do you thing he remembers her."

"Probably." Jetta shrugged "But he would never had put my lady's civilian identity with her other one so that won't be much help."

"But he would have heard of her role as our leader." Mai said assuredly.

"Never said he didn't." Jetta laughed "Hard to forget the only female to beat you at sparing."

"When was this?" Ica asked.

"It was a couple of days after the battle of Kriptoe, during the hunt"

"Oh right we had split up into pairs." Ica said before rubbing her shoulder "Did you have to shoot me in the shoulder."

"It was an accident." May exclaimed. "I didn't mean to. My horse moved at the last second."

Ica just scowled in reply but the emotion didn't meet his eyes. "So he's likely to put things together."

"If he has enough information to go on." Jetta said "The same for the others. They will know her history just not that it's still... going on." She phrased unsurely.

"So it will most likely take a while" Jetta nodded "Damn."

"But on the bright side she will be in a safe place and hopefully will get the training she needs." Jetta reassured standing up. "In the meantime we should be preparing to find the relics and keep these fools under control. I was thinking a wild goose chase to Antarctica."

"Good idea Jet." Ica smiled "Let me do it though. I have slightly better relations with Stone then either of you."

"Is that what you call it." May teased.

"Hey, I only slept with him once and quickly regretted it." Ica defended herself "I might as well take advantage of the influence it gives me as the only 'sane' one though." She said rolling her eyes.

"I'm just kidding you Ica" May teased "I'll go and update the others." She told them "They'll want to know the turn out."

"Let me do Katie." Jetta bargained "She's been expecting me to call, and Mayleen" May turned from the door she was leaving from "Don't forget to keep track of who you call this time. You missed out quite a few last time."

"No worries Jenette." May teased "See you later."

"I'll be of now." Ica nodded "You're on guard tonight right?"

Jetta nodded "I'll be heading off after I call Katie. Do you mind checking on May."

"Of course." Ica agreed "But don't worry. After last time a few of the other set up a phone tree. Even if she doesn't call everyone the news will eventually reach them all."

"Bernadette?" Ica nodded "Sounds like her."

"Yeah." Ica agreed "Have a good night."

"You too." Ica left the room, Jetta waving goodbye before turning to the expanse of room in front of her.

Checking she was all alone she spoke out clearly to the room.

"You can come out know"

* * *

**See, I finally updated, it only took me... a while I guess. But I did it.**

**So I guess this is kinda given the bad, and the not so bad, guys depth. I really don't know. I just started writing this when I should be doing school work, but it just came n to my head and I decided to write it when the inspiration was fresh. Just don't tell any of my teachers *Shush***

**I don't know if I put too much info in this chap but like I said it just came to me and I went with it.**

**So who's the mystery [person at the end, what will happen with this group of mysterious bad guys, who are these lieutenants and whose is Rosalita really.**

**Tube n next time, which may be a long time coming so in the meantime REVIEW. **


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I do not own Xiaolin Showdown; it's the property of whoever owns it.**

**A/N: I've decided to mention I am using the Google translator to create the Portuguese conversations. I will admit now I've probably gone wrong in places but the general gist is there so just use your better judgment and don't think me an idiot.**

**I also might as well mention that I have decided to post other stories I have come up with, but most likely they will stay uncompleted for a while if ever. Either way please look at them and tell me what you think. Any criticism is good criticism as long as it's constructive….. and I don't know where that came from.**

**Enjoy**

* * *

Chapter 11

Chase gently lifted a hand from her shoulder as he and his passenger touched solid ground. It had quickly become apparent after her admission that Rosalita would not be able to descend the ladder herself. It had only taken Chase a moment's thought to offer his own services, forgetting for a minute that she had referred to him as a taxi. He cast a critical eye over the small girls form, noticing again the dark circles round her eyes, but he could see nothing else wrong though he knew there was. How strong must she be to endure such trials? How could she make everything seem ok with one smile?

That smile was soon bestowed on him with a nod as Rosalita stepped away, a silent thank you as she turned towards the trailers, probably to go change. As she walked away Chase found himself once again admiring her slim figure, how it gracefully weaved its way through the steadily darkening night, her costume creating a stark contrast with the shadowy surroundings. It was no wonder she was admired, no wonder she was called an angel by those that had seen her perform. Just by looking at her you could got the feeling of goodness, of happiness and peace. Like one of gods angels had fallen to earth to join the lowly mortals, spreading her own brand of serenity.

She was beautiful.

She was kind.

She was talented.

She was so much more.

Chase had seen something different to the other spectators you see. His thoughts had run so much deeper, though he couldn't explain why. He did know one thing though and that is she was an angel, but only in his world. A world filled with darkness and depression. A world where goodness was condescending and not truly understanding. An angel for his world had to understand what it was to be dark, but not so much to be completely tainted.

Rosalita had that slight taint, she could be his world's angel, but in the monks world she will only be an angel in looks alone. He had known she would have a dark streak as soon as he had heard she and the dragon of wind were twins. He wondered if they truly understood the significance in their routine that night. Did they know that twins, especially in a set where at least one has a spiritual power, is the purest form of Ying and Yang. He knew it wouldn't have been Raimundo, he was obviously light, in screamed in the essence of his power, and therefore the dark one had to be Rosalita.

Dark, never evil.

Hence she was an angel to him, but the dark steak she had, the slight darkness she admitted to, prevents her from being an angel for the other side. She did not possess the light of her brother; she cannot emulate the good virtuous woman associated with heavenly messengers. She would only be an angel by appearance to them as they would soon enough recognise the difference in her soul and understand she had a dark streak. However the monks would never begrudge her, they would still care and protect her. Raimundo would still lover his younger sister, still be fiercely protective of her and want what's best for her. He already had realised anyway, probably always knew, that his twin was slightly darker than himself, that she was the worse of the two. That was why when the dragon of wind had looked at Chase today there was more than protectiveness in his eyes. There had been fear.

Fear that he, the Prince of Darkness, would steal his baby sister away and change her. Mould her into a member of his side, a solider for his army.

He wouldn't though, for however dark she was she was not even the slightest evil. She may act badly from what he had heard, she can be rude and disobedient, but she wasn't cruel. She didn't wilfully hurt people. She had a conscious. She was good.

She had said it herself.

Dark not evil.

"Hey Chase" Chase suppressed a groan as Jack Spicer ran up to him. "Where you been."

"Walking around." He said impassively trying not to glare at the minion "Did you want something Spicer."

"N-n-no." Huh, he normally could hide his anger. "Just thought I would tell you that Rai's Grandma is making dinner. It smells really good and she is saying that everyone has to have a plate and that you have to get there know before it's all gone seen as you're a guest and saved Ros." The boy rambled.

Chase just sighed and began to walk away, ignoring the incessant prattle of the boy genius as he headed back towards where he could hear the noise of the Pedrosa Family.

"ANTON IVANOV COMO SE ATREVE A DAR O MEU FILHO DE ÁLCOOL." He walked into the clearing to see Mrs Perdrosa waving her fist after one of the fire breathers, a bottle of vodka in her other hand. To the side the man's son stood looking on ashamedly, his arm wrapped round the waist of one of the Pedrosa sisters, Antónia. A similar expression was on Raimundo's face as the other monks looked on laughing.

"Mad aren't they." He turned to see another some of the twin's siblings standing not far off. "Chase Young right." The man who had spoken had a very serious look about him, his eyes hard and accessing as he held a hand out to Chase "Rafael Pedrosa, I didn't have the chance to introduce myself before." He said as they shook hands before turning to Jack.

"Jack Spicer." The boy introduced himself.

"We know." The man replied stonily but they was a distinct hint of amusement in his eyes "Did you enjoy are palhaços performance."

"Huh" The boy genius translator still hadn't been returned yet.

"Did you like the clowns?" Chase said.

"What, oh, yeah they where good." Jack replied nervously before his eyes narrowed slightly "I will get my stuff back right."

"Não se preocupe" One of the sisters said "I mean don't worry." She amended "They'll be clean and ready for you in the morning. I'm Sofia and this is my O irmão mais velho, I mean older brother, Filipe" She indicated the boy standing behind her "Sorry, I'm not that good with different languages, I keep slipping" Her accent was stronger than the other Pedrosa's they had spoken too and was awkward with her speech. Filipe smiled at the young woman and ruffled her hair fondly.

"Prazer em conhecê-lo" Chase's attempt at making the woman more at ease worked as she relaxed upon hearing him speak Portuguese.

"What he said." Jack agreed causing unsurely with some laughter from the siblings and an eye role from Chase. "I think I'll go talk to Ashley." He walked away quickly form the scene. He was positive Chase had said something about him.

Sofia smiled up at him before telling her siblings she was going to help their grandmother serve up. "Speaking of which, where is Rosalita." She kept to English, probably unsure about how much he knew.

The boys shrugged while Chase saw no harm in answering. "I saw her head towards the trailers not long ago." Three pairs of inquiring eyes flashed towards him appraisingly.

"Did you?" Rafael said suspiciously "Then she shouldn't be long."

"Enough time for a chat though." Filipe added on before turning to their younger sister.

The oldest Pedrosa sister stepped forward as her brothers moved away "How much Portuguese do you know?"

"I'm fluent"

"Excelente"

* * *

Five minutes later Ashley was surprised to see Chase stumble towards her. She looked behind him to see the slight from of one of Rai sisters walking away towards where the food was being made. "What happened to him?" She asked aloud.

One of the acrobats next to her, another cousin Marie Satago, looked over Ashley's shoulder before waving it off. "He just has been through one of the family talks." Ashley looked confusedly at the girl. "The same thing happened to Dmitri when he started dating Antoniá. He had to get a talk from every member of the immediate family."

"So Chase has gotten one of these talks?"

"Sim" Maria said nodding before cringing slightly "And it was of Sofia. She's very protective for her sisters and younger brothers. Real mama bear." She explained "Makes sense though. They won't want to overcrowd him with too many talks but you're leaving soon. So they have Sofia do hers first as it hits hardest."

"But why did they give it to him?"

"Haven't you noticed?" The other teen asked wide eyed "He's beginning to like Ros, and vice versa."

"Yeah I noticed he seems to like her, which is really weird I might add, but it's just that. Nothing more."

"Yet" Ana interrupted coming over "That could change whilst Ros is away, so the siblings are starting it now. Making sure the warnings loud and clear. Specially as its Rosalita. No one messes with our Rosie."

"I thought she didn't like being called that."

The brightly coloured girl winked at her "What she doesn't know won't hurt her." She then shouted across the space "Ros will be here soon Avó"

"Obrigado querida" The old woman called back "Alimentos prontos" She shouted out to the clearing as a whole.

"Food" Ana squalled happily pulling Ashley up. "Avó made her special stew, it's delicious." She dragged the girl into the queue that had been started over by the food tables "You don't have no allergies do you?"

"No."

"Good" The girl smiled "You'll love it."

"So..." Ashley said unsurely "Will Kimiko be getting one of these talks."

Ana scowled for a moment catching Marias eyes. "Possibly of one of the sisters but that will be all. Hate to say it but in some ways are family's really sexist."

"Old fashioned" Maria corrected "It's old fashioned. The boys still respect us girls immensely." She snorted and shrugged her shoulders "In more ways than one were the bosses of the family." Ana giggled beside her.

"So who do you think will talk to Kimiko?" Ashley asked.

The girls shrugged "Could be any of them, all four are threatening enough when they want to be." Ana told her "But it probably won't be Ros."

"Huh, why?"

"Something's been up with her recently." Ana told her grabbing two bowls and holding them over to Sofia who was helping dish the stew out "Probably longer, she's just been acting different."

"You talking about Rosa?" Sofia asked. Ana nodded, so Ashley gathered it must be another nick name for the youngest Pedrosa "She been having pesadelos again, sounds terrified. I'm glad Rai's taking her away."

"Yeah, maybe a change of scenery will do her good." Ana agreed sombrely taking her bowl from the woman "Obrigado Sofia"

"Obrigado" Ashley repeated also taking her bowl and followed Ana as she led them over to the monks and the Heylin's. "Um pesdels?"

"Do you mean pesadelos?" Ashley nodded "Nightmares. She and her sisters normally share a room. It explains why she been looking tired recently." She smiled slightly at her companion before greeting the group "Olá"

"Olá" Rai said in return from where he sat on a bench, Kimiko next to him and Omi and Clay sitting on the ground. On the other side sat Jack and Chase, a distinctive gap in-between them as the Dark Prince tried to ignore the boy's insistent jabbering. Ashley sat in that gap for both of their sakes. "Ah I missed this." Rai moaned eating some of his stew. Ashley had to agree as she took some herself. His grandmother was a brilliant cook. Ana excused herself not long after, telling them she had to go talk to the bird keeper, and leaving them in relative silence as they ate their dinner.

Chase had to agree with the others assessments. The stew was very nice, plenty of meat and vegetables and probably was heavenly for the performers after a long night in the ring. Thinking of that though just led him back to thoughts of certain young lady who he was trying to stop thinking about. It wasn't healthy the amount of times in one day he had gotten lost in his thoughts about her, not to mention he had only met her this morning. Even now he was beginning to wonder where she was. But as he thought about that other thoughts came to mind, such as her sisters threats.

He shudderd inwardly.

He, the immortal prince of darkness, had been threatened, successfully, by a normal mortal, and if from what he heard of Ashley's conversation with Ana and Maria there would be more to come.

But it wasn't like he had those intentions towards Rosalita. Yes she was very beautiful and he found her appealing, but he didn't love her. But hadn't Ana said that it could change.

Why was even taking stock in these e things anyway. It was just a combination of protective siblings and girls fancies getting away from them. He had more important things to be worrying about. He would probably see little of Ros anyway, it's not like after they left Brazil he would be meeting her in battles or anything like that. And he certainly wouldn't seek her out.

Why did that make him disappointed?

"Hey Ros." He cursed himself as he realised he had gotten lost in thought _again._ This was really becoming a problem. He looked up to see one of the sisters, Márcia he thought, waving to something behind him, a wide smile on her face, and he followed her line of sight.

The first thing he noticed was her hair was loose. Admittedly he had seen it down before when she was doing her 'final flight' but not as it was now. The gentle wind had caught the long tresses in it's path, making them dance on the current around her face, a lone black hair band holding back her fringe so her green eyes could flash out brightly capturing his attention. A stronger gust sent her hair flying to the left, making her laugh slightly, raising an arm to push strands away from her face, her unopened black jacket falling loosely to one side.

Chase swallowed thickly. He certainly had not noticed them before.

She pulled the sleeve of her jacket back over her shoulder, her long legs striding purposely towards them, and he couldn't help notice the tanned limbs were clad only in a pair of denim shorts and converse. It was certainly different to what he had seen her in before.

As she neared a bright smile blossomed over her flushed face as she waved at her sister. "Desculpe o atraso, I got a call." She explained hurriedly to those who were paying attention, going to sit by her twin, but before she could sit there was a shout from across the clearing.

"Rosalita Jacinta Suzana Luisa..."

"Vindo Avó, vindo."

"Reneta Pedrosa." Her grandmother continued her warning "Chegar aqui agora e conseguir alguma comida." She ordered

"Apenas um momento, por favor, eu-"

"Agora," Rosalita shot the group a look as if to say 'what can you do' and walked over to her grandmother "Você não comer o suficiente neta." The old woman pleaded "Nesse ritmo você nunca vai ser forte o suficiente para ter um filho."

"Mãe." Justino Pedrosa sputtered

"She pretty girl, she make good bebês, but not strong enough." Gloria Pedrosa argued "You." She suddenly pointed at Chase "You look like intelligent man, you good man, you save Rosalita. You think she make good bebês yes."

"Avó"

"Mãe"

The Pedrosa siblings and their parents protested at the same time, Rosalita's face as red as the flower she was named after. Gloria just ignored them.

"My netas pretty yes." She insisted starring straight at Chase the green eyes she passed on to her son and granddaughter unrelenting. "You think she make muito bebês."

"Um." Chase for once in his life was completely discomposed what should he say. "Yes."

"See," The old woman said triumphantly pinching the girls red cheek "He think you bonita."

"He called me muito Avó, not bonita."

"Nonsense, he like you neta" The old woman said brightly "He nice looking too, bonito, good intelligent. You two would make bonita bebê-"

"Avó I'm Hungry." The young woman said loudly cutting of her grandmother.

"Oh of course, my poor neta. You always so thin, yes a big bowl for you my dear, and don't be afraid to ask for more. You need more weight to bea-"

"Obrigado Avó" Rosalita said hurriedly, backing away.

"You're welcome my dear, now eat all that up"

"I will Avó." With that Rosalita turned hurriedly on her heel to where they were sitting. "Not a word Rai, not one word." She warned before quickly turning to Omi "Say one word lemon head and you will wake up tomorrow hanging from the trapeze by your toes." Omi nodded mutely. He did have some survival instincts. She sat down on the floor near her brother's feet and looked around till her eyes met Chase's. She quickly averted them her face getting redder. "Sorry about that Chase."

"Don't worry." She nodded in reply before turning back to her bowl.

"I see Avó's still trying to fatten you up." Rai observed looking at her nearly overflowing bowl.

"No way Einstein." His sister said with a role of her eyes before shrugging. "I've been losing too much weight recently and I've had problems with my appetite." She sent him a significant look and he quickly got the message behind her words. "So she's now set on fattening me up till I can't fit in my clothes. I've already had to replace most of them because they were getting to tight."

"Know that you mention it you do look at but pudgier. OW!" He glared at her as she slapped him on the top of his head sending him a glare.

"Rai remember what you said before about girls and boys parts." She asked condescendingly "Well what do girls have that boy's don't." Clay quickly put a hand over Omi's mouth before he said anything.

"Well there's...Oh." Rai realised eyes falling to his sister's chest and quickly looking away.

"Yeah 'Oh'." The girl said with a role of the eyes "I've also grown a bit taller."

"But still." Rai looked around uncomfortably "Did you have to grow... You didn't have these before."

"Late developer." She injected

"Still why did you... You were fine the way you where...Boys are going to be interested now."

"And they wouldn't have before." Rosalita's mood quickly changed from dismissive to offended

"Well yeah, boys are only interested in one thing."

"Oh and is that why your dating Kimiko?" She accused.

"Wha- No! Her brother sputtered "Kimiko's aren't even that bi-" He just spotted the glare his girlfriend was shooting at him in time "I mean I appreciate Kimiko for more than just her assets."

"So there's no boy that can do the same for me."

"Yeah all they want is an attractive girlfriend who will give into their demands."

"So we're back again to saying I'm not attractive." By now they had most of the circuses attention.

"No you are pretty, but before you just weren't appealing to males. The only point they would have seen in you was to do... Well that." He did not want to talk about sex with his baby sister.

"So let me get this straight the only thing boys would have been interested in me for was sex." He cringed as she said the word. "And know that I have developed bigger breasts I'm going to get hounded." He nodded uncomfortably. "Just so you know these only developed a couple of months ago. Baring that in mind can you explain how in every school I've gone to in the past few years I've had admirers."

"Wait how didn't I kn-"

"Your oblivious Rai" She told him "And also can you explain why I've had two boyfriends who have never pressured me to sleep with them."

"Wait boyfriends! You haven't done tha-"

"No" She shrieked "Give me a bit more respect Rai."

"But how can you date. Why haven't I heard of this?"

"David was just after you left and was on Holiday for a month. It wasn't that serious but Carlos still threatened him. I was in a long distance relationship with Leonardo till a couple of months ago. Márcia hacked my e-mail account at the start of that. He was suitably threatened. We met up every so often but the distance was too much and he developed feelings for a friend of his. We are now good friends."

"But why didn't you tell me."

"You overreact. You're probably already planning to attack Leo when you meet him and are going to try and track down David."

"No I wasn't."

"Don't lie to me Rai."

"But..I.. Still... You're not allowed to date. Why did they let you date?"

"Have we ever been able to control Ros Rai?"

"SHUT UP CARLOS" The brother shrank back properly chastised by his angry siblings.

"I am allowed to date you chauvinistic pig and you don't have any say over it." Rosalita shouted

"Yes I am, you don't know any better Rosalita."

"I don't know better. Says the boy who's life ambition was to eat moon cheese and decided to climb on top of the tents roof to accomplish it."

"I was seven"

"So was I and I knew better."

"Didn't do anything about it though."

"Rai I was in bed with a cold and how do you think Pai knew you would be there."

"So you told on me."

"Of course I did, you were going to get yourself killed."

"Like you haven't done anything as dangerous."

"For the last time free falling doesn't count estúpido."

"I'm estúpido? Well you're..."

"Enough you two." Their father finally broke it up "Raimundo your sister is allowed to date. Rosalita your brother was just worried about you. Now sit down and finish your meal."

"Sim, pai" The two chorused begrudgingly and went to sit back down, Rosalita moving to sit by Ashley instead of her brother which so happened brought her closer to Chase. The Dark Prince looked down on the young woman. Her skin still had a slight flush to it probably from the arguments she just had but when he caught her eye he wasn't exactly disappointed to be wrong. What he was for some reason disappointed about was her talk of boyfriends. His eyes ran unnoticeably over her form. Rosalita Perdrosa was undeniably a very beautiful girl, it was no wonder she had admirers and had dated, but for some reason he would have thought a sweet girl would have waited a bit longer. Wait! She wasn't sweet; he kept forgetting, falling into the same trap as everyone else and judging just by her appearance. Though that was too a lesser affect know. With her hair loose and wearing more casual clothes it was much easier to look past the innocence and see her more sensual side. She still looked very innocent though, and that was what was killing him.

"Do you like it?" This was becoming a problem he though as he regained his senses, he was getting to distracted. He looked down on the young woman who had spoken "The stew I mean."

"It is very nice." He replied "Does your grandmother cook often." He asked.

"Sim" She said with a smile "She's always cooking for us. Mãe has to barter to be allowed to help."

"Do any of your siblings cook as well?"

"We all do, well apart from Rai and Carlos. They don't have the patience for cooking." She whispered conspiringly "I still maintain that Rai burnt water once."

"You should see Jack." Ashley intervened "He thinks rock cakes actually contain rocks."

"Well Ashley tried to recreate 'Four and twenty back birds backed in a pie'." Jack intervened after overhearing Ashley's comment.

"Two words." Ros said holding up to fingers putting them down as she talked "Mud pies. He used them to replace the apple ones he ate." Rai overheard this.

"At least it was better than your attempts at pizza." He ignored the glare she shot at him "We ended up using them as Frisbees. Know we order in and... Ros is everything ok."

"Frisbees?"

"You didn't know that did you." Rosalita shook her head still glaring at her older twin "Um Rosalita what are you going to do?"

Rosalita's glare subsided and she raised an eyebrow at her brother, giving his body a once over. "Oh nothing." She said coolly turning back to her bowl "You know Rai" She said loud enough the carry "You're looking a bit thin." The boys face whitened and he made a attempt to shut her up.. "Been eating enough?"

"Raimundo Fernando ..."

"I'm coming Avó"

"Rodrigo Alexio Zeferino Pedrosa, venha aqui" They heard the old woman order as Raimundo ran over to her.

Ashley looked over impressed whilst Ros turned to Kimiko "I'll apologise now for if the subjects of babies comes up." She said dryly "But he did deserve that after those comments from before." She said harshly before turning back to the young Japanese girl and taking her in for a moment "Quick piece of advice Kimiko, don't let my grandmother get a good look at you. No offence but you're so slight you look like a strong gust of wind will knock you over" She paused to think for a minute before shaking her head "and that's so ironic I don't know why I said it."

"But Rai would never hit Kimiko."

"That's not what I meant Omi." She said sighing "I just was referring to the fact I mentioned wind with reference to Kimiko considering my brothers powers. Though if you think that's ironic you should look at his name. His last middle name, Zeferino, means west wind. My parents were really foreshadowing weren't they" She shook her head whilst the other laughed

"So does this happen often." Kimiko asked slightly nervous as she watched her boyfriend and his grandmother.

"Baby talk?" Rosalita asked bluntly with a raised eyebrow and proceeded with a nod from Kimiko "She starts talking about it as soon as you hit puberty. She will be in raptures when one of my siblings decides to have a child."

"But not you?" Jack asked stupidly.

Ros raised an eyebrow as if to say 'is this for real' "Jack I'm seventeen and the youngest of all of us. After Raimundo the next oldest is Carlos who's twenty. Márcia is twenty-one, Alberto twenty-four, Antónia twenty-five and engaged. Sofia is twenty-six and in a serious relationship as is Filipe who's twenty-seven and Rafael is married and twenty-nine. Something tells me one of them is going to have a child before me." She hissed at him whilst the other laughed at his expression.

"So she really wants to be a great grandmother." Ashley intervened.

Rosalita nodded "She likes having a big family." She said exasperatedly "Meaning lots of big brothers."

"That bad?"

"That very bad." Rosalita sighed "Any male friends I have need to be brave, the boys threaten them all the time."

"Um, we haven't been threatened yet." Clay said raising his hand.

"You will, believe me." Rosalita replied assuredly "And if a certain cheese ball dares hurt my family he will find himself in the middle of the desert with no water and a big sign on him saying, 'hey I'm good and nutritious. Come eat me and be nice and refreshed.' Got that."

"You won't be able to manage that." Omi protested.

"I'll get help." Rosalita said assuredly and the group couldn't help but believe her. Omi gave her a nod of understanding and with a smirk she turned back to her bowl of stew and began to eat as her brother sulked back over, his bowl refilled with food.

"Thanks a lot Ros."

"You welcome." The blonde replied cheekily. Rai sighed and put another plate down next to Kimiko. "What's that irmão?"

"Bread." Rai sighed before turning to Kimiko "Avó says your to eat all of it and..." he blushed slightly before murmuring something. Kimiko raised an eyebrow curiously as the others, bar Rosalita and Chase, did the same. Chase having already heard was unsurprised but it was Rosalita who was laughing at her brother's discomfort.

"Can you repeat that Rai?" Kimiko asked.

Rai got redder before turning pleadingly to his giggling twin. "Rosalita, ajuda por favour."

Rosalita straightened up suppressing her giggles "I'm sorry Kimiko, Avó got a good look at you." Kimiko looked confused for a moment before comprehension dawned and she started blushing.

"I can't believe..." Kimiko said embarrassedly "I'm still a teenager."

"If it doesn't work for me it doesn't work for you." Ros said offhandedly taking a sip of the stew. "You her new neta, meaning you are to be inflicted with the same pressures as all of us to be giving her bisnetos as soon as possible. You should here hear her." She began to mimic her grandmother "'_Quando eu tinha sua idade eu já estava se preparando para casar com a minha Christiano__..._'" Rai joined her mimic perfectly, performing had gestures perfectly in sync. _"'...__e passado um ano estava grávida de minha querida Donato e poucos anos depois, fui abençoada com você pai e, em seguida, seu tio Alexio'_" The twins laughed out loud as they finished, Ros holding out a hand. "Trégua?"

Rai nodded his head "Trégua," They then proceeded to shake their hands in way that Jack would spend months trying to follow, to no success.

Ros laughed as she watched the boy genius try to copy her and Rai's secret hand shake. She knew it was corny but they had started creating it when they were five and had added to it each year. It was special. Still giggling her eyes fell on Kimiko, only to see her expression showed she was still uncomfortable with the conversation topic. Using what their siblings had quickly dubbed 'telepatia duplo freaky', or freaky twin telepathy, Rai knew to look where she was and knew as she did what the problem with Kimiko was. He sighed slightly and moved closer to his girlfriend, throwing an arm round her shoulders.

"Please don't worry about this Kimi, you're not going too pressured into anything."

"Yeah, our family would never allow that" Rosalita agreed softly before shrugging with a laugh "Look on the bright side, at least you're business is not being shouted out to all and sundry." Kimiko laughed a bit. "And you won't have to deal with your grandmother going up to random people and asking them if you're pretty." She blushed as she remembers and looked up at Chase shyly. "I am really sorry you where put on the spot like that. I hate that you where pressured into agreeing to it"

"I wasn't pressured into anything." Case replied a smirk on his face "And your grandmother was right I do think your muito bonita."

"She just said bonita." Ros murmured with a blush but Chase heard clearly and smirked slightly.

"It's true." He said quietly so only she could hear, causing her blush to intensify.

"Avó was right about something else." She finally said after few moments, quiet enough so her brother couldn't hear. Chase raised an inquisitive eyebrow "It's true that your muito bonito."She bit her lip slightly looking up at him with innocent green eyes. Eyes that had the unmistakable glint of wickedness.

She was destroying him.

* * *

**A/N: Another Chapter done and dusted, and the longest yet. **

**12 PAGES!**

**I really am starting to love the Pedrosa family I've created. I can have so many things happen. Unfortunately I come up with them of the top of my head which leads to me not getting where I want. This mean I haven't finished the evening as I had planned and will be finishing it next chapter.**

**Woe my Overactive Imagination.**

**So please review Pleeeeeeeeese.**

**And I'm not kidding. I don't even mind constructive criticism, well as long as it constructive. Don't be mean.**

**Seriously I won't mind if you just put good, I kind of need a confidence boost at the moment.**

**E-angel-H**


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